A KENT woman has exploded the myth that office workers in India are being exploited by British firms by going to see them first-hand.

Toni Conlon, 42, was flown to India by Meridian TV to take part in a special documentary, Focus, to be screened on ITV1 on March 11.

The popular perception is that British businesses are relocating telephone call centres and back office functions to Asia -- as Kent Reliance has controversially done -- to take advantage of cheap labour abroad.

But Toni said: "Believe me, no one feels they are being exploited. Call centre workers in India are paid far better than they would be in the UK and have effectively become India's yuppies.

"I was even told that doctors, lawyers and other professional people are vying for call centre jobs because they are seen as being so well paid.

"Call centres even have to have their workers driven to and from work to prevent them falling prey to robbers. That is how affluent they are seen to be."

Toni said that a call centre worker in Pune, the city she visited in India and where Kent Reliance outsources back office and computer work, could expect a starting salary equivalent to £20,000 in Britain. The comparable starting rate in the UK is roughly half that.

Exchange rates mean that even though the Indians see themselves as getting an exceptionally good deal, it is still much cheaper for UK companies to relocate their call centres there.

Toni has spent more than seven years as a call centre worker, and for the past six-and-a-half years worked for a financial group in Tunbridge Wells.

She said: "My Indian counterparts work no more hours than I do, get plenty of fringe benefits including free meals and really seem to love their jobs."

Toni added: "In some ways I'd hoped to find flaws which would help bolster our shrinking call centre industry at home.

"But the only problem I could see concerned accents and occasional confusion over meanings when speaking English.

"Some of the operators do have very strong accents which even in a face-to-face situation I sometimes found hard to understand."