Miriam Santiago: BPO workers need protection

WORKERS in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry are unprotected as the Philippines is set to become the call center capital of the world.

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago on Saturday said the Philippine BPO industry is expected to overtake India’s in five years.

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She said this year alone, the industry expects to earn US$5.7 billion against the US$5.58 billion that Indian BPOs expect to get.

Citing reports in Indian newspapers, Santiago credited the country’s “better affinity with the American culture, lack of competing industries for skilled workforce, and higher tax incentives” for the growth of the BPO industry.

She said long income-tax holidays helped attract multinational BPO companies to the Philippines.

Firms set up in special IT parks and economic zones have also tax and duty exemptions on imported capital equipment.

“Curiously, the Senate in the Fifteenth Congress has yet to file any bill for the promotion of the call center industry and the protection of its workforce,” Santiago said.

She said the perks given to BPO companies should trickle down to their workers, adding that the BPO workforce may need special laws because of their unique work environment.

Santiago admitted that her office has been receiving complaints from call center workers.

The complaints include contractualization, union busting, forced overtime and holiday work, and long working hours.

“We must balance the legitimate business interests of BPO companies with the labor rights of employees. I have heard that most call center agents do not stay too long in one company either because the work becomes more and more unreasonable every year or there is no professional growth,” Santiago said.

The senator will file a bill next week “to jumpstart legislative support for the BPO industry, especially its workers”. (Jonathan de Santos/Sunnex)