Chennai: Call centre professionals in India are well taken care of by the employers, compared to the US, where the workers were treated as a "commodity", said an official of Communication Workers of America (CWA), the largest workers union in the US. "The call centre environment in India is much better. In the US, the employers are not considerate about the workers. They treat people as a commodity," Steve Tirza, President, CWA, who was in Chennai along with other members to have a first-hand understanding of the call centre and IT industry in India, said. Taking exception to the argument that many jobs are outsourced to India for cost-cutting purposes, he said that even while doing this, the salaries of CEOs in US get 'fatter and fatter', negating the cost advantage.

"When companies cut the jobs by a third, the salaries and perks for CEOs keep on rising. So, where is the question of cost-cutting. The work for the existing employees keeps rising and the top executives get the hike," said Beverly A Hicks, administrative assistant, CWA. The delegation from the US, which visited call centres and IT firms in cities such as Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, said that the system in India was much better. "We are very much impressed by the welfare measures for the workers here," she said. However, the nature of the work in call centres, which is mostly in night-hours, will result in serious health problems. In the US, about 8 per cent of the people in call centres report sick, per day, Hicks said.