The recent controversy of the requirement of unions in the BPO sectors has generated much speculation all over the country. BPO industry has its firm grip in India and the number of young professionals who work in them is also large. But common belief is that there is no job security in this industry. And that is when the question of whether there should be a union in BPO arises.
According to Ankush Wadhwa, Co-founder and Head - business development, of BPO Voice.com, the idea of forming a union is pass' and it does not simulate brains of today's well educated and well informed generation. The working conditions and accessibility to higher management is comparatively better today in comparison to that of the old days.

With a similar kind of statement, Amit Saxena, founder BPOVoice.com (BPO specific social network) opined, "BPO pros needs social networking, not unions." According to him, social networking sites like BPOVoice.com provides a platform to its members to share more information and to stay in touch with the latest happenings of their industry.

The social networking sites enable its members create their identity and impression as they can participate in the discussions on various topics on the forums and blogs. These networks can help BPO Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) in career and resolving their issues. Says Amit Saxena, "Many people have landed up with great opportunities through their expert comments or interesting blogs. Also many use it to voice out their concern and give their opinion a momentum by floating their concerns through various discussion forums, blogs and sometimes the management do look into it."

According to Amit Saxena, working conditions in fields like medicine, information technology (IT) and manufacturing etc might also be worse than that of the BPOs. As corporate world runs on profit, there is no job security in any field in today's competition. One needs to prove oneself to fit in the industry.

Undoubtedly, employees need to take their work more seriously to sustain in the market. Ankush Wadhwa said, "Most of us come from middle to upper middle families into BPO with the sole intention to make a career or to get settled in life and not to become a glorified agitator." With all these diversified issues, we now wonder where this debate leads to.