Call Center Labor Unions Pros & Cons

I think slowly the Philippines Outsourcing industry is waking up to the realities of labor unions in our country. The Philippines' sunshine industry has been here since early 2000 and yet it is only now that call center and BPO employees have begun to seriously contemplate on unionizing. Although years late, it does make sense to unionize. After all, the outsourcing industry is a service-oriented sector where roughly 90% of the income generation comes from "people who work the mills." There are existing labor unions in some call centers in the Philippines. For example, Globe Telecom employees have unionized years ago and it has fairly done its job for the employees it supposedly protects. In an outsourcing setting, it is different however. Employees in the outsourcing industry are exposed to different elements that make them think twice about unionizing. In this light, let me enumerate some of the Pros and Cons of having a call center/BPO labor union or being a member of one.

Pros:
1. With a good foundation and support, labor unions in call centers can definitely help employees especially in terms of representation, security of tenure and salary matters. I think people would stay longer in a company if they feel some measure of protection.

2. Employees will have a "real" avenue for their grievances.

3. Employees can have protection from against pro-company policies such as the "co-terminus" contract, non-compete clause, service bonds etc.

Cons:
1. No promotion - employees will have to choose between being a member of a labor union and their own career aspirations. Labor union members will have a very tough time getting promoted because company management will definitely not want somebody from "the other side" as part of their team.

2. Times have changed and so is the perception of our labor force during the present times. As a student of customer service myself, I believe most of call center employees these days are "walkers" instead of "talkers" which means most of them prefer to walk away or keep silent rather than protest when faced with oppression.

3. In some cases, employees just want to be heard and not necessarily be counted as a union member.
There's an upstart labor union created by Teleperformance employees. I have closely watched developments in their website and I can't help but notice that most issues in their website are mainly about complaints. My advise to tpwatchers is to promote an avenue of dialog between them and the management and not just a forum of rants. The purpose of protecting employees' rights is defeated if nobody would have the balls to represent the majority and present an un-addressed case.

Posted in: CallCenter Advices