Indian call centres have had great success winning UK contracts

A new survey by global human resources firm Hewitt Associates says Indian workers gained an average salary increase of 14% in 2003.

This was twice as much as second placed Philippines, where pay was up about 7%.

The well-educated, English-speaking, Indian call-centre workers continue to win big UK contracts for their sector.

Salaries are going up across the board Spokesman for Ma Foi Consultants, Bangalore

Relocating work from the UK to cities such as Delhi and Bangalore can cut costs by up to 40% for British firms.

Household-name British firms who have exported call centre or computer operations to India over the past year include Lloyds TSB bank, telecoms group BT, British Airways, and insurers Aviva and Prudential.

Unions in the UK are also campaigning to prevent the National Rail Enquiries telephone service, which provides information about passenger train journeys, from going to India.

'Aggressive sectors'

A spokesman for Bangalore-based human resources firm Ma Foi Consultants said, "Salaries are going up across the board.

"Two sectors which are very aggressive in this area are the IT sector, and the business process outsourcing sector."

The latter sector includes the numerous call centres established by the flood of work from international companies to India.

However, this export may slow as the Indian jobs market runs out of enough technology-skilled and English-speaking staff.

Increased wages have boosted retailers in Indian cities

Hi-tech Indian operations are now having to compete for staff, which has also contributed to the nation's high average pay increase.

This tightening staff situation may require Indian operators in the two boom sectors to greatly increase their training investment in workers.

However Indian wages, despite the recent rises, are still far behind those in the UK.

And despite the high pay rises being driven by the two boom sectors, India remains one of the lowest paying countries in Asia, with many living in great poverty.

Directory enquiries

Another nation harnessing the growth in overseas call centre operations is the Philippines.

In 2003 it saw average pay increases rise from 7.1% to 8.6%, with directory enquiries provider The Number 118 118 one British company that uses a call centre in the Philippines.

In highly-developed Singapore, the average salary increase for 2003 was between 2.1% and 2.4%.

Hong Kong came in between 1.3% and 1.5%, and Japan 1.6% to 2.1%.

'Slow recovery'

The other countries surveyed - Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan and Australia - averaged increases from 3% to 5%.

Mick Bennett, Hewitt's managing director for Asia Pacific, said that, across the region, the increases are only slightly higher than those of the previous year.

"Employers are still cautious over the slow pace of the economic recovery.

"The outbreak of SARS earlier this year may have had some impact on salary increases because there are fears the virus will return as the weather gets colder."