Amicus, which represents British call centre workers, is working with the National Union of Students on an email and publicity campaign that questions the ethics of outsourcing to India. Students will be encouraged to boycott companies such as HSBC, British Airways and Norwich Union.
David Fleming, the national secretary for finance at Amicus, said: "We want to ask what conditions people are working in in India. People have to work day and night, often being bussed many kilometres from their communities. One call centre is known as the '15 pounder' because that's how much weight you lose in your first week working there," he told The Independent on Sunday.
However, the India High Commission has rejected these criticisms and has invited representatives from Amicus and other trade unions to visit and see conditions for themselves.
Amicus is one of five unions backing a commission to investigate the effect of offshoring on British employment. The unions plan to invite a British business leader to chair the commission.
A number of high-profile British firms have moved some or all of their call-centre operations to India where staff are paid a fraction of what UK workers are paid. They include Abbey, BT, BA, ebookers, HSBC and Tesco and GE Capital.
Trade and Industry secretary Patricia Hewitt has said she will launch an investigation into the offshoring of the UK call centre industry.
Last week, The Evening Standard reported that organised crime in India is targeting call centre workers with bribes for access to the computer systems of the British companies they work for, which have outsourced their customer care to the sub-continent. Criminals are using the security details to hack into the computer systems of British firms.
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