BPO industry should improve work conditions, says ILO study

A new International Labor Organization (ILO) book launched on Wednesday in Geneva and Manila suggested that the multibillion-dollar business process industry (BPO), generally call centers, should now be open to listening workers’ “collective voice” and engage “social dialogue” to improve working conditions in their “high-strain” workplaces.

In a video-conference from Geneva with journalists in Manila, ILO researchers and co-editors Jon Messenger and Naj Ghosheh presented the highlights of the book “Offshoring and Working Conditions in Remote Work”, said to be the first in-depth study about BPO workplaces in Argentina, Brazil, India and the Philippines.

The Philippines has the second biggest BPO industry in the world, said Messenger.

The study found that the Philippine BPO industry provide reasonably “good” quality jobs by local standards, with BPO workers getting an average of P16,928 ($364) in monthly pay aside from non-wage benefits.

While young Filipino women dominate BPO jobs by up to 59.3 percent, the study discovered that Filipino men earn 13 percent more than women.

Work hours in the BPO industry are likewise “good” compared to the excessively long hours endured by many other workers in other industries in developing countries.

But the ILO book said that “key changes in the BPO industry policies and practices” are needed to address problems and challenges in the workplaces.

Messenger said night work is common in the Philippine BPO industry, with 42.6 percent of BPO employees or 51.7 percent of all employees in call center positions working the night shift to serve customers, mostly in the United States, in real time.

“Night work is often associated with occupational safety and health issues such as sleep problems and fatigue,” said Messenger.  Nearly half (47.7 percent) of BPO employees surveyed reported suffering from sleeping problems or insomnia.

The study also described BPO work organizations as “high-strain” due to the heavy workloads, tight rules and procedures, and electronic monitoring but the employees are given little or no autonomy.

The result of these is high job stress among BPO workers. The BPO workers surveyed said stress-inducing factors include harassment from irate clients (45.6 percent), excessive and tedious workload (41 percent), performance demands (37.4 percent), monotony (33.7 percent) and regular night work (33.4 percent).

It was also noted that the BPO industry has a high rate of staff turnover, which in some companies can reach as high as 100 percent or more annually.

“Giving employees little control or autonomy is an outdated notion,” said Messenger.

He added that “it cannot be a good business approach to have a model that leads to high attrition.”

The authors also said that the BPO industry should “redesign” work processes, especially in call centers, to allow BPO workers more discretion or autonomy, to make use of their often considerable qualifications.

Messenger said other positive steps to improve working conditions include providing the proper, ergonomically-designed seats, computer screens and equipment.

In the Philippines, there is practically no union or labor organization covering or organized by workers in the BPO industry, but BPO industry players have long formed the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP).