UP to 200,000 UK call centre jobs could go abroad in the next five to ten years, it was claimed last night.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) warned that rock-bottom wages for workers at Indian call centres could see companies move customer service jobs outside the UK.

Last night a spokeswoman told The Northern Echo that more than 5,000 jobs across the North-East and Yorkshire were directly threatened by such a policy.

She said: "These are often low-skilled workers, women and young people who will be out of a job if companies are allowed to get away with this."

The statement was made as the CWU used its annual conference in Bournemouth to hit out at what it believes is one of the worst offenders, telecoms firm BT.

The former British Telecoms company, which has call centres in Middlesbrough and Newcastle, announced earlier this year it was to switch 2,200 customer service jobs to Bangalore to cut costs.

The CWU claimed workers at Indian call centres were paid 80p an hour compared to £6 an hour in this country.

It said staff were often instructed to answer the phone using English names such as Molly so that they "interacted" with British callers.

Some firms transferring jobs to India were asking workers to watch UK soap operas such as Coronation Street and EastEnders so they could chat with callers about the latest developments, union officials claimed.

BT has been threated with industrial action over its "catastrophic" decision to export jobs to India.

Mark Taggart, an executive member of the CWU said companies were cynically exposing wage differences.

"It is crude exploitation and it is simply about making more profits.

"Most companies are currently turning to India but it could soon be Malaysia or China," he said.

"We will continue to protest and if necessary we will take strike action."

The union said it believed BT was bringing highly skilled technicians from India to work in the UK at substantially lower rates of pay than British workers.

BT said it was "simply not true" that Indian workers were being taken on at lower pay rates.

"The total package of Indian sub-contractors working on BT projects is comparable to those of their UK counterparts and is well above the UK national average wage.

"They do not lose out," the spokesman said.