EU to probe outsourcing to India RASHMEE Z AHMED
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2003 08:14:21 PM ] LONDON: The European Union (EU) will launch its very first investigation into the off-shoring-outsourcing phenomenon to India and other low-wage economies in a decision seen as a significant widening of Britain�s heated debate over the eastern jobs flight. The UK�s largest manufacturing union, the 730,000-member Amicus told TNN on Thursday that the EU investigation would be a huge pressure point on the British government to consider � and possibly stop - the long-term effects of off-shoring to India and other low-cost economies. Amicus met European parliamentarians in Brussels over two days earlier this week. Last Friday, Britain�s trade and industry secretary Patricia Hewitt announced an independent study into the impact of off-shoring, in order to debunk the �myth� that UK jobs are being lost overseas. But Brian Harris of Amicus told this paper, the European investigation would reveal a different picture. �I don�t know how the British government calls it a �myth�. How can the loss of 1,000 UK jobs can be good for the British economy,� he protested. The European investigation, to be launched by the EU parliament in March, will come just five months after Britain began its first, major parliamentary inquiry into the jobs-flight phenomenon. Till now, British prime minister Tony Blair, his trade minister Hewitt and other leading government ministers have insisted Indian call-centres are good for the British economy. But Amicus says it has managed a major coup in getting disparate EU parliamentarians from various European countries, including France , Germany and Denmark , to agree that outsourcing to low-wage economies like India �for short-term profit is not good� and should be opposed. Dave Fleming, Amicus national secretary, said the campaign for more research into the impact of offshore outsourcing is not merely about protectionism. �We are not asking for walls to be put up around Europe . We want to develop a strategy to deal with changing technology and to safeguard against offshore providers who are trying to put the fear of death into finance companies by telling them their share price will go into a tailspin unless they move offshore,� he said. Britain is badly hit by outsourcing to India , France is hit by offshoring to Northern Africa , Spain by offshoring to Central America and Germany by the jobs migration to West Africa and eastern Europe, said Harris. �We�re all affected by the flight of jobs to low-cost countries where our languages are widely-spoken. But what happens when the jobs move on from India ? We don�t want global wages to continue to fall and workers� safety and health standards to be ignored further,� warned Harris. Significantly, the British trades unions� meetings with European parliamentarians were organised in conjunction with an umbrella organisation that covers a massive 320 unions in 48 countries. British unions� anger at the Blair government�s do-nothing strategy comes as analysts Deloitte Research predict two million jobs will migrate from western economies to India by 2008. More tellingly still, the prediction says a large percentage of skilled business service jobs would be shipped to India and not low-skilled call centre work. ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
