First, it would impose a 25-cent excise tax on any customer service call that originates in the U.S. and is transferred to personnel located in a foreign location.
Second, the legislation requires that companies inform customers of where a call is answered.
And third, the bill would require that companies publicly disclose quarterly and in their annual reports submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission how many customer calls they received and how many are sent overseas.
"If we want to put a stop to the outsourcing of American jobs, than we need to provide incentives for American companies to keep American jobs here," Schumer said in a statement. "This bill will not only serve to maintain call center jobs currently in the United States, but also provide a reason for companies that have already outsourced jobs to bring them back," he said.
This isn't the first time legislation aimed at curbing the use of overseas call centers by U.S. firms has been proposed in Congress. In 2003 U.S. Sen. -- and presidential candidate -- John Kerry introduced a bill that would require call center employees to disclose their location at the commencement of each call. The bill did not become law.
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