Govt survey shows call center workers’ compensation nearly doubled in 2 years

THE business process outsourcing (BPO) industry received billions of pesos in financial support from the government in 2008, according to official statistics. Data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) showed that total subsidies granted to BPO firms amounted to P1.014 billion.

The NSO said subsidies are special grants in the form of financial assistance and tax exemption or tax privilege meant to develop an industry and to protect it from competition.

The BPO industry includes call centers, human resources, accounting and payroll outsourcing. The major components of the industry are contact/call centers, software development, animation/creative service, data transcription, back office processing and engineering design.

The NSO said the industry employed 187,000 workers in 2008, higher than the 141,630 workers in 2006.

The bulk of the jobs were in call center activities, which employed about 150,000 workers.

This was followed by establishments engaged in other software and consultancy with about 17,000 workers; data processing activities, 13,000; and database activities and online distribution of electronic content, 410.

In 2008, the total compensation paid by BPO firms to their workers hit P62.4 billion, nearly double the P38.6 billion in 2006. This is equivalent to an average monthly compensation of P27,808 per employee.

Call centers paid the highest total compensation of about P47 billion, thus accounting for 75.3 percent of the total paid by the industry.

Other software and consultancy placed a far second with P8.9 billion, while data processing gave out P3.5 billion in compensation.

The database activities and on-line distribution of electronic content paid the lowest salaries amounting to P128.6 million.

The BPO industry’s gross revenue amounted to P127.2 billion in 2008, higher than the P81.8 billion in 2006. The call centers contributed the biggest at P89.5 billion, followed by other software and consultancy, P21 billion; supply and data processing, P8.4 billion; and software publishing, P5.3 billion.

Database activities and online distribution of electronic content earned the least revenues at P453 million.

The industry’s gross addition to fixed assets (capital expenditures less sale of fixed assets) totaled P10.8 billion in 2008. –DARWIN G. AMOJELAR, Manila Times