British telecom firm shuts shop in Bangalore

Bangalore, Jul 9: British telecom firm Belair Communications Pvt Ltd has closed its captive call center here abruptly sacking all its 93 employees.

The company began operations a year ago, but did not cite any reason for the pulling down its shutters. The union for ITES professionals (UNITES), has lodged a complaint with the Labour Commissioner here, seeking its intervention in conducting an enquiry and initiating appropriate action against the firm under the Industrial Dispute Act 1947.

According to the information available, Belair Communications India Pvt Ltd, registered with the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) as an export unit, told its employees in June about its decision to close the operations. However employees allege that the firm did not pay salaries and compensation since May.

Belair India website claims that it is a captive centre of Belair Communications UK Ltd offering transaction processing and call centre services to its customers. Calls to both the Indian office and the UK numbers were not answered. "We offer offshore transaction processing and contact centre services. Our offshore business model enables us to offer clients enhanced quality and cost reduction," Belair Communications India website claimed.

Since June 2006, this is the third company which is closing its operations in Bangalore. We can recall that a British energy firm Powergen had decided to close its operations and had outsourced its job to an Indian company. Last month, IT major Apple Computer also decided to close its Bangalore center.

STPI Bangalore Director BV Naidu speaking to CyberMedia News said that STPI would investigate the matter with the company and also will look at the grievances with the employees if any.

OneIndia News