Outbound Call Center Featured Article

Bill Aims to Improve Filipino BPO Working Conditions

By Linda Dobel
TMCnet Contributor

Call center agents who work in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector of the contact center industry in the Philippines may soon be legally entitled to certain working conditions that are seen by some as improvements to their quality of life.

Specifically, a bill has been proposed by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who is the Philippines former president and currently the Philippines province of Pampanga Representative, along with her son, Camarines Sur Representative Diosdado Arroyo, that is aimed at providing protections for call center agents working for BPO organizations, according to a report today from GMA News online, an online news source for Filipinos. House Bill 5218, called the Magna Carta for Call Center Workers, is said to outline what are being referred to as call center workers’ “rights.”

GMA News quoted Diosdado Arroyo as saying, “This bill aims to better protect the interests and welfare of the workers in the BPO industry. It is in the interest of the BPO companies themselves to protect their workers who are their most important resource."

The BPO companies to which he refers generated $5.7 billion in revenues in the Philippines in 2010 and employ 400,000 in that country, the article said, and as a result are dubbed the Philippines’ “sunshine industry."

Nevertheless, Diosdado Arroyo sees the treatment by the BPO organizations of those 400,000 employees as anything but sunny, and reportedly believes their mental and physical health need legal protection because he says they are exposed to “high levels of stress” in their jobs, the GMA News article reported.

Among the provisions the bill proposes BPOs be obligated to provide call center agents includes having available for night shift agents a “comfortable resting area within the employer’s premises" so they can sleep until sun-up. This is seen as a safety measure for night shift agents.

Another new right under the proposed law is the right of agents to make personal telephone calls that are not monitored by the BPO. In addition, the bill advocates the agents’ right to form and become involved in organized labor unions as a means of ensuring that the new laws are being followed, in the event that the bill passes both the House of Representative and the Senate. Currently it is being reviewed in the House and if passed there, will go on for Senate evaluation and approval.

Should the bill be passed on both levels and signed into law, the Arroyos would also like the Department of Labor and Employment to establish a help desk to disseminate information about the law to agents and BPOs.          

In other news, TMCnet reported that Convergys (News - Alert) Corporation, recently appointed Maria Victoria Mueco as country manager for Convergys’ customer management operations in the Philippines, where it is the country’s largest private employer