The International Labour Organisation is planning to come out with a set of guidelines on working conditions in industries like call centres, ITES (Information technology-enabled services), electronics and construction to improve the existing indoor environment.

"Indoor environmental conditions in sectors like ITES, call centres, electronics and construction - where employment is perceived to be high - are indecent and hazardous," ILO Occupational Health and Safety specialist Ingrid Christensen said at a seminar organised by Assocham. In 90 per cent of the call centres, there is an air problem, she said.

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"The ILO was looking at problems of internal environment in sectors, which provide high employment but take little care of environmental conditions," Christensen said.

Criticising the design pattern of premises in which most IT and IT-enabled services are being carried out, Christensen said they "do not have features to prevent noise and air pollution".

These charges from the ILO are in sharp contrast to the IT industry's claim that it has the best working conditions. "Where else do employees get such state-of-the-art infrastructure and working conditions," Nasscom president Kiran Karnik had said at a recent press conference.

The VV Giri National Institute of Labour had recently labelled the Indian BPOs as "sweatshops".

The IT industry also claims that it is also expected to abide by the United Nations' guidelines on working conditions. "Under the contract, the working conditions at call centres are broadly defined and our foreign clients expect us to abide by the UN's guidelines on working conditions," N Ranjit, CEO, HCL [Get Quote] BPO Services, said.