Council condemns Washington Gas outsourcing

It's great to see local government officials stand up to our gas utility. The following was reported in the Prince George's Gazette.

Prince George’s County Council members voted unanimously last week to condemn Washington Gas Light Co.’s plan to turn over 300 local positions to a Bermuda-based company.

In a resolution passed Oct. 3, members said the utility’s plan to outsource call center operations to Accenture Ltd. would harm customers and workers.

Washington Gas announced the deal in July to have workers in Texas, the Philippines and Canada field customer calls on everything from gas leak complaints to billing inquiries. The move will allow the company to save about $170 million in costs over the next decade.

About 250 area human resource, customer service, finance and technology workers will be laid off, while an additional 50 vacant positions will be eliminated.

In addition to the loss of jobs, council members said the move creates ‘‘deep concern that workers thousands of miles away could be handling calls dealing with dangerous situations” and voiced fears that foreign workers would have access to customer financial information.

In its resolution, the council asked the Maryland Public Service Commission, which regulates the utility company, to ‘‘demand that Washington Gas Light Company maintain the quality customer services that we have already paid for.”

A spokesman for the company declined to comment.

So I have several questions the Maryland Public Service Commission should ask Washington Gas during their next rate case.

• How will the outsourcing of responsibilities of local Washington Gas employees to Texas, the Philippines and Canada improve anything except the bottom line?
• Are the lives of Washington Gas customers worth the saving of millions of dollars that will enrich stockholders and not the community?
• Will the savings from the outsourcing be used to improve the gas distribution system or to line the pockets of Washington Gas executives and institutional shareholders?

It's a shame to see Washington Gas now focus its knife on the support functions of the utility. There isn't any more left to cut on the operations side...

I have an idea for Washington Gas to save a ton of money. Why doesn't Washington Gas move from its ritzy headquarters office at the corner of Constitution and New Orleans. I'm sure Washington Gas could save millions of dollars a year at a more modest building. But wait, then the executives would have to suffer too.

The biggest problem I see at Washington Gas is that the senior management team is making all the employees doing the work suffer and bear the brunt of the cost cutting, while senior management sits in huge posh offices overlooking the Capital building.

Washington Gas employees and customers should demand that the utility's management team lower their salaries and extravagant stock options in order to ensure the safe and reliable distribution of natural gas in our communities. There isn't anything left to cut at Washington Gas, except for executive pay and compensation!