Philippine BPO in serious threat with US anti-outsourcing bill?
By PalePurple
@PalePurple (157)
Philippines
January 5, 2012 10:11am CST
The Philippine call center industry was one of the major industry nowadays. We are listed as one of the best Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) place in the world because of the quality of service and with English as our second tongue.
But recently Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) filed the 'anti-outsourcing' bill in the US House of Representatives as one measure to help the US economy on their unemployment problem. To wit - "Outsourcing is one of the scourges of our economy and one of the reasons why we are struggling to knock down the unemployment rate and reduce the number of Americans who are out of work. We can't prohibit it, but we can certainly discourage it."
Although the BPO companies who are outsourcing the services to countries like the Philippines think it will be a big lash also on their part since the labor is too costly in the US and this will mean high overheads rather than getting the service from countries like the Philippines.
US is only one amongst the other rich country hiring the call centers here in the Philippines, do you think the Philippine BPO industry will suffer a great deal? What is your opinion about this?
2 people like this
6 responses
@chiyosan (30183)
• Philippines
8 Jan 12
I think if this happpens, we will suffer a big blow. many graduates and even all thee people here in the country (not only in Manila as we have BPOs all over tthe country now). are applying or is working in a BPO company.
I think though that it might take some time still before this is going to be pulled out from us or in India... the companies will still have to think about it and decide. maybe, paying bigger taxes in the US and still having the work done offshore is better - then i guess that is still good news for us... fingers crossed.
@aaronfyzeon (1920)
• Philippines
5 Jan 12
Hello there! Thank you for this wonderful topic. I know sooner or later this will really happen in the near future in the United States. A lot of proceedings will eventually happen before this bill will be passed. I would humbly say that it will really have a great effect on our economy (the Philippine economy) if this will happen. I do agree with the other mylotters before my post where they have stated that we greatly depend on the outsourcing services we offer them. They will also be affected as well because all the things that they provide will be a lot higher than the usual concerning their dropping economy it is most likely to fall double deft. They usually offer a rate of 11 USD per hour if they hire an American compared to the usual 11 USD per day (8 hour shift) of the Filipinos here. Where will they get the budget with that huge amount of workforce if they are claiming that their country is in recession. Let us just cherish what we have now and learn to save a lot of money from what we are getting right now so in the end we will be able to be ready on what lies ahead.
@Queen_11 (307)
• Philippines
5 Jan 12
If ever this bill is passed, hopefully it will not greatly affect our country in a negative way. Almost half a million Filipinos are working on this industry and add to that number are the other individuals and businesses that are also depending in part or in whole in the existence of the BPO companies. This bill still has a long way to go and for our part, our BPO workers should then upgrade or learn new skills that we can use in other industries.
@yahnee (1243)
• Philippines
5 Jan 12
I don't think this has much effect in the Philippines. With outsourcing even the small and medium sized businesses in North America and Europe can compete with the more well known and big enterprises because of outsourcing. Labor is cheap in Asia and we provide good service since most of those working in call centers and IT industries are educationally competent. It is not outsourcing that is causing unemployment in the US. Outsourcing would not have found itself into our shores if only the Americans were willing to work for less. While they want cheap good,they would not accept the wages that we welcome in our country. When companies outsource, they minimize their operating expenses including the payment of benefits, insurance, disability and so forth. These companies are able to survive only through outsourcing overseas. Remove outsourcing and it would surely hurt their economy because these companies will have to close down.
@Pipink19 (15)
• Philippines
5 Jan 12
Well I hope this will not deteriorate the growing economy, for one I believe that the clients will not just follow the bill maybe most of them has something against it because before anything else they are businessman and they would think about the $ that they will earn. The US is still under recession and the clients are doing all their best to let there business survive and one way of doing so is outsourcing so I don't think they will just follow that in a snap. I feel for the Americans, I used to be a debt collector for a BPO company here in PI, for 3 years, each year we can tell the difference of how many people are able to pay and they are really in a economic crisis.
