HENCEFORTH, it is no longer Alain from Lyons but Ali from Casablanca. The French Government is calling time on call-centre operators who disguise their true locations with adopted names and accents.

French call-centre operators will today be summoned to a meeting with the Industry Minister, Patrick Devedjian, in Paris, and told to introduce a new code of practice.

Under the new rules, which are fiercely contested by the industry, call-centre employees will have to divulge their location at the start of a conversation with a customer.

When Marième Fall answers the call-centre telephone, she speaks in a Parisian accent and gives her name as Michèle Duval. French callers are unable to guess that she is based in an offshore centre in Dakar, Senegal.

However, Mme Fall may soon have to reveal her secret as the result of a French government plan to crack down on outsourcing. It says that staff such as Mme Fall would have to begin the conversation: “Ici Michèle à Dakar.”

The Finance and Industry Ministry said: “It is unfair to let consumers believe they are enjoying a close relationship with a firm when they are in fact dealing with a sub-contractor, often in another country.”

The moves comes amid debate in France over outsourcing, which is being adopted by French business after its growth in countries such as Britain and the US.

French companies, including SFR, the mobile telephone operator, and Wanadoo, the internet service provider, have moved call centres and other services to France’s former colonies.

Senegal, Tunisia and Morocco are the most common destinations. All three countries are politically stable, with well-educated workforces that speak good French.

Over the past five years, 55 francophone call centres have been set up in Morocco, employing 6,500 people and generating total revenue of €85 million (£58 million). Analysts say it is three times cheaper to locate a call centre in North Africa than in France.

A total of 200,000 people are employed in 3,000 French call centres.

According to Eric Dadian, chairman of the French Association of Call Centres, about 5 per cent of operators have decided to outsource, or are considering it. However, he said: “Our industry is one of the biggest providers of new jobs in France – 10,000 last year. The trend towards outsourcing is real, but it is not destroying jobs. Of the 10,000 jobs a year that will continue to be created over the next few years, 70 per cent will be in France and 30 per cent overseas.”

But the French Government has taken a firm stand against work being sent offshore, which is seen as a greater threat to France than unemployment or terrorism, according to recent opinion polls. The Finance and Industry Ministry believes its code of practice will deter operators from moving services abroad.

“It’s an implicit call for a selective boycott,” said Alain Madelin, an MP who opposes the measure. “The announcement that you have phoned Dakar or Rabat will give the impression of incompetence. Worse still, it will awaken xenophobic sentiments against the ‘job thieves’.”

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