IANS

London, Jul 16: British Telecom will bring back at least 2,000 call-centre jobs from India to Britain as it prepares to close about half its customer service operation in the subcontinent, a newspaper reported Thursday.

BT chief executive Ian Livingston disclosed the move in response to a question by a shareholder at its annual general meeting in London Wednesday, The Times reported.

The paper said the eventual number of customer service positions that will be repatriated is likely to be closer to 2,750, representing half the group's 5,500 call-centre staff in India.

However, BT, which has 11,000 customer service staff in Britain, clarified its move has nothing to do with the quality of service in India.

"This is not about customer service, as the service in our operations around the globe is of very similar standards. It is about the effective deployment of our resources.

"We have opportunities to bring some activities, carried out by our partners, back from outside the UK to permanent BT employees in the UK who are skilled to do this work," a spokesman told The Times.

BT's action follows similar moves by businesses Powergen, Abbey and Orange.

The paper said one shareholder criticised Livingston's 686,000 pound bonus and a 1.6 million pound termination payment made last year to Francois Barrault, the head of BT's troubled IT unit.