The Philippines Makes Contingency Plans for Pending U.S. Legislation

While politicians and government officials in the Philippines wait to see the outcome of U.S. HB 3596, also called the “Call Center and Consumers Protection Bill”, some in that country's thriving call center business believe that they should start making contingency plans.

If enacted, HB 3596 would require overseas call center employees to disclose their location to U.S. consumers, and it would give customers the right to be transferred to a U.S.-based call center if they wish. The bill would also require the U.S. Department of Labor to track and list companies that move call center jobs overseas. Those companies would then be ineligible for any direct or indirect federal loans or loan guarantees for five years.

Call center work is a “sunshine industry” in the Philippines, with a number of U.S. companies either using Filipino outsourcing providers or opening up call centers of their own there. Should HB 3596 become law, many of those U.S. companies may drop Filipino BPO providers or shutter their own contact centers, leaving the industry vulnerable.

As a result, the Philippine government is eyeing jobs in the tourism sector for local call center agents who may find themselves without jobs, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said yesterday, the Philippine Daily Inquirer is reporting.

Baldoz said local call center agents who may be laid off by large BPO companies could be absorbed into the nation's tourism sector since those workers are fluent in English.

“Just in case this [U.S. bill] is passed into law — which of course we don’t want to happen — one measure would be to retrain and retool our workers,” said Baldoz in a press conference. “We can quickly train them for work in the service industry like in hotels, restaurants and tourism-related establishments, or in merchandising and trading services. They could be encouraged to start their own businesses so they would become young entrepreneurs themselves,” she said.

The passage of HB 3596 is highly uncertain. Similar bills have failed in Congress in the past due to strong opposition from the business community.

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