Workers in a call centre - (Gleaner file photo)
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An employee of a call centre and St. Patrice Ennis, General Secretary of UTASP
An appeal has come from an employee of a Business Process Outsourcing centre in St. Catherine for workers in the sector to be unionised.
The employee, who asked to remain anonymous, said workers in the industry are facing unfair treatment, but are not speaking out for fear of losing their jobs.
The employee on Friday told Radio Jamaica News that the poor treatment has not abated with the current work from home arrangement due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The first complaint relates to salary.
"If we have an issue with our system or anything of the sort and it causes us to log out to get it straightened out, then we are not paid for the time out of the phone. We're being told that that is being considered unproductive hours," she lamented, noting that if the workers were in office, they would not have been penalised for a system problem.
In addition, the employee said her electricity bill has more than doubled and the company has indicated that no help will be provided.
She pointed out that while she is grateful that she is still employed at a time of such uncertainty, the conditions under which workers like herself are operating are far from ideal.
She said the voices of BPO employees need to be heard and called for the government to lobby for the sector to be unionised.
UTASP agrees
St. Patrice Ennis, General Secretary of the Union of Technical, Administrative and Supervisory (UTASP), agrees that it is time the local BPO industry seriously consider calls for its employees to become unionised.
Reacting to the worker's concerns in an interview with Radio Jamaica News Friday afternoon, Mr. Ennis said it is the constitutional right of all categories of workers to decide if they want union representation.
He said there should be no hurdle to the workers in the BPO sector joining a trade union if that is their desire.
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