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Yoni Epstein, CEO of Itelbpo
Approximately 27,000 workers in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector will be laid off on Tuesday in keeping with the order for BPO locations to close for 14 days, starting Wednesday, Aprill 22.
Yoni Epstein, CEO of Itelbpo, who made the disclosure, said this is based on discussions with other companies in the industry.
Mr. Epstein said the remaining 13,000 employees will work from home.
The BPO sector employs about 40,000 people.
Speaking Tuesday on the Morning Agenda on Power 106, Mr. Epstein said about 50 per cent of workers at Itelbpo's Montego Bay and Kingston offices are working from home.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who gave the closure order on
Monday, said minimum operations will be allowed to continue for critical services which support telecommunications, logistics and shipping as well as banking.
These are to be closely monitored by the Ministry of Health.
Mr. Epstein said closing down the BPO sector will only deepen the negative impact on the sector and the economy.
He said the decision was unexpected as the industry had been engaged in dialogue with the government and had implemented measures and passed several inspections following the COVID-19 positive cases at Alorica.
Mr. Epstein believes the BPO sector is being treated unfairly as it is not the only "cubicle-type job" in Jamaica and a similar outbreak of the coronavirus could have come from any other sector.
He said only offending BPOs should have been closed.
At Tuesday's media briefing at Jamaica House, the Prime Minister said regulations were coming for other industries where persons operate in close proximity to each other.
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