BACK TO HOME PAGE

EUROPEAN REVIEW

ISSUE 28 - Page 2

Call centre charter tries to tame the cowboys

THE INCREASING IMPORTANCE OF CALL CENTRES in the telecommunications industry has given rise to concerns about health and safety, stress and overwork, monitoring and surveillance, and lack of unionisation and training. A new agreement between the social partners seeks to allay these fears with a charter of rights and duties for employers and employees in this sector. The European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association (ETNO) for employers, and UNI-Europa Telecom for trade unions cut a deal, after some months of negotiation, which lays down both key principles and minimum standards for call centres and their workers.

The first, general standard states that all employees should have a written contract of employment, that national agreements and legislation must be respected and employment must be 'stable' where possible. The standard on health and safety takes into account the 24 hour work of many call centres and the preponderance of women workers. There should be adequate heating, ventilation and filtering to cope with continual occupation with all furniture being ergonomically designed. A dedicated place for refreshment, including at night, should be provided while employees' security should extend to violence in the workplace, abusive calls and protection of workers leaving late at night. No more than 60-70% of work time should be taken up with actually receiving calls and there should be a 10 minute break from the computer screen every 2 hours. The existing Display Screen Equipment directive should also be complied with.

The working time standard lays down a maximum of 40 hours per week with a rest period of at least 12 hours per day and 48 hours every 7 days. Whilst acknowledging possible benefits from flexible working, the charter states that this must be brought in by agreement. Monitoring of employees is only allowed when the purpose is 'known and acceptable' and they must know if there is going to be listening-in to their calls. Data gathered in this way should be available to employees and tapes destroyed after a certain time. On pay the charter says that there must be a structure to avoid high staff turnover and while there should be extra payment for working at night or weekends, bonuses should not make up more than 10% of total wages.

Finally all call centre workers should have the right to join a union and unions have the right to represent their members. Reps. must have full access to the workplace including e-mail and internet facilities. The UNI general secretary, Philip Jennings, welcomed the agreement 'which shows just what the social dialogue process É. can bring. We hope the guidelines will have influence well beyond the telecom sector and help drive out any cowboy employer tempted to ignore the well being of their employees'.

Performance targets should be based on providing high-quality customer service rather than on the quantity of calls taken or made; Training and development should provide employees with skills and product training to develop careers and quality customer service. Training should be portable and accredited; Changes in company policy and product developments are to be communicated prior to implementation. Employees should participate in key decisions relating to the improvement of the provision of customer service; Decisions on the location of a call centre should be based on being close to the customer base, the demand for skilled and multilingual staff and access to a competitive telecommunications infrastructure, not merely cost; Call centres should ensure that staffing levels are sufficient to ensure that employees are able to attend training and staff meetings, and that employees are able to manage work, family and community responsibilities; Core labour standards, as set out in the 1998 International Labour Organisation (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work must be respected.

Bargaining round-up

Employers in some 'old' EU countries seem to be pushing for a new goal: longer working hours, while unions in the 'new' members still seem optimistic about the traditional aim of reducing time spent at work.

IN GERMANY SEVERAL LEADING COMPANIES have negotiated deals with trade unions to raise working hours without extra pay. The reason why the normally powerful German unions have agreed to this lie in the ability of employers to move jobs to lower cost countries such as nearby Hungary. Under the threat of 2,000 positions at the electronics group Siemens moving east, the IG Metall union concluded that a series of concessions, including increasing the working week from 35 to 39 hours, was the least painful option. There followed a similar deal concluded by the union at Daimler Chrysler.

AUSTRIAN EMPLOYERS SEEM TO HAVE one eye on their colleagues to the north as the heads of two bosses' organisations have called for longer working time. The government have asserted that it is possible for agreements on annualisation of hours to allow for a working week of up to 45 hours. However the Austrian unions have reacted differently from their German counterparts with Fritz Verzetnisch, president of the ÖGB federation opining that 'Yesterday's remedies will not solve today's problems'.

FINNISH BOSSES ARE USING THE fact of the ageing of the country's population to call for longer working hours. The Confederation of Industry says that otherwise shortage of labour will make the economy uncompetitive.

MEANWHILE TRADE UNIONS IN HUNGARY seem quite happy to go in the other direction, with a target of a 38 hour week by 2006. Here employers quote the Siemens agreement to argue that reductions are not on if jobs are to be attracted to the country.

Back to	Forward to	Up to
FRONT PAGE	NEXT PAGE	TOP OF THIS PAGE	BACK TO LIST OF ARTICLES ON EU DIRECTIVES