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To: maceng2 who wrote (535)	1/23/2004 5:43:01 AM
From: maceng2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1417

Firm switches call centre back to UK from India ananova.com A call centre opened by a UK firm in India is to close and jobs will be returned to Britain. The move is a reversal of the recent tide of work being switched overseas. Shop Direct opened the centre in Bangalore in March 2002, switching 250 jobs from the UK. The company says the centre will close next month and the jobs will be moved back to its six call centres in the UK - based in Worcester, Burnley, Bolton, Widnes, Preston and Newtown in South Wales. An official said the call centre in India had been a trial, dealing with orders and customer inquiries, but the level of customer service was not up to the standard the company wanted. It is not known if all the jobs will return to the UK. Shopworkers union Usdaw, which had threatened industrial action over the transfer of jobs abroad, welcomed the decision. "It vindicates our belief that the jobs should be in this country," said a spokesman. David Fleming, an official of Amicus also welcomed the move, predicting it would be the first of many. Unions have been campaigning against the "outsourcing" of call centre jobs to India, with little success as UK finance, telecoms and other companies switched work abroad, where labour costs are a fraction of what they are in the UK. An independent report earlier this month said that the level of service in Indian call centres was not as high as in the UK.