NCO Group Announces Decision of 1,400 Employees to Unionize

NCO Group, Inc., a leading provider of business process outsourcing services, announced today that the employees at its call center in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada voted to join the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union (“BCGEU”).

If the Company is able to reach a collective agreement, it will only cover the Company’s Surrey, British Columbia call center. The 1,400 telephone representatives constitute approximately seven percent of NCO’s total employees. This facility provides customer relationship management services and generated approximately two percent of NCO’s consolidated 2005 revenue. The financial impact of such organizing effort is not known at the current time. Currently, the Company is not aware of any union organizing efforts at any of its other facilities.

Commenting on this development, Michael J. Barrist, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, stated, “We are very disappointed that our Surrey associates have voted for union representation. Against a backdrop of increasing pricing pressure from our clients, a strengthening Canadian dollar and a client-driven trend towards moving North American call center business off-shore, the BCGEU convinced approximately 51 percent of the employees who voted that the union could improve their pay, benefits and working conditions. We have informed the clients who are serviced by the Surrey facility, and once they have the opportunity to integrate this information into their long-range planning as to where they want NCO to perform their work, we will be in a better position to inform our investors of the impact of this development.”

NCO Group, Inc. is a leading provider of business process outsourcing services including accounts receivable management, customer relationship management and other services. NCO provides services through over 100 offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, India, the Philippines, the Caribbean and Panama.