Citing US regulatory filings by Washington Mutual Inc. (WaMu) based in Seattle, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines secretary general and former Senator Ernesto Herrera said many of the jobs that would be transferred involve "handling telephone sales and service for the banks mortgage and consumer lending units."
"This is definitely welcome news. This means more business for our call centers and back office solutions providers. And more business for them means more new job opportunities for our unemployed fresh college graduates and young professionals," Herrera said.
WaMus decision to move jobs out of the US, according to Herrera, forms part of "a strategy to relegate back office jobs to lower-cost locations."
"The banks in-house call centers and back offices in several US states are now handling many of the jobs that would eventually be entrusted to a vendor in Manila," he said.
Herrera said just last week, WaMu notified 1,400 employees in its call centers in Seattle and in Jacksonville, Florida that they would lose their jobs either by July or September as part of the companys cost-saving strategy.