Workers file charges vs closed call center

CEBU, Philippines - Some 200 terminated employees of Direct Access Corporation, the call center company that closed last July 30, filed several charges before the Department of Labor and Employment-7 (DOLE) yesterday.

Assisted by the Partido ng Manggagawa, the distraught workers filed a case of illegal shutdown, non-payment of salaries, benefits, commissions and allowances and non-remittance of Social Security System premiums.

“This is a wake-up call for the call center agents all over the country and for the government to really look into this industry especially on the aspect of labor standards,” said Art Barrit, spokesperson of the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, the country’s largest labor federation.

Barrit said if the Business Processing Outsourcing industry has a union, these foreign companies can no longer just trample on the worker’s rights.

The militant Partido ng Manggagawa likewise called on the government to monitor and enforce labor standards in the BPO industry in the wake of the abrupt closure of the said call center which left 641 people without jobs.

Renato Magtubo, PM national chairperson, said that during the State of the National Address of President Benigno Aquino III he applauded the BPO industry.

“But behind this so-called sunrise industry lurks storm clouds that batter workers’ working conditions. Within an industry which prides itself with above-standard systems are substandard practices that are common in other businesses,” said Magtubo in a press statement sent to The FREEMAN.

He said that DOLE and other agencies cannot be complacent that all is well for workers in the BPO industry.

“But the best regulator of labor standards are empowered workers and so we call for representatives to be elected by workers with the mandate to talk with management regarding working conditions, terms of employment, employee benefits and work load including setting of quotas, metrics and performance indexes,” he added.

PM is assisting employees of DAC, a locator in the Asiatown IT Park in Cebu City which shut down without due notice last July 30 to the surprise of its workforce.

It is arguably the first such protest among BPO workers wherein hundreds of the affected employees spontaneously held a rally last Monday in the prestigious ecozone, said Dennis Derige, PM-Cebu spokesperson.

Derige added that the scheduled teleconference yesterday between leaders of the Direct Access workers and the US-based owner was postponed for today.

This was after no agreement was reached the other day during a mediation called by the National Conciliation and Mediation Board, and a meeting with the Cebu tripartite industrial peace council.

DAC workers are demanding justice, the payment of some P 6.4 million in wages and other benefits and the company’s culpability for violations of labor laws.

Magtubo recognized that numerous studies have called attention to health and safety concerns specific to the BPO industry especially due to the graveyard working shift prevalent in call centers.

“BPO companies must provide health insurance that is on top of the mandatory Philhealth membership and guarantees wider coverage and better benefits that especially address call center-specific health issues and afflictions,” he said.

He further said that government must push for industry-wide standards for wages, benefits and entitlements that is well above the minimum set by law and commensurate to the dollar-earning nature of the BPO sector.

“Daku lage ni sila (call center agents) og sweldo but walay security of tenure. Og di na ganahan ang foreign companies sa mga incentives or policy nga atong gobyerno, mobabay lang dayon na sila,” Barrit further said. (They have high salaries but they don’t have security of tenure.)

Jose Tomongha, chairman of the Alliance of Progressive Labor, said that if the government cannot provide a decent job with security of tenure, it is high time that the bill on such matter shall be passed into law.

ALU-TUCP earlier asked the House of Representatives for the passage of the Security of Tenure Bill filed by the TUCP Partylist which is still pending for second reading.

The bill aims to criminalize labor-only-contracting and mandates the strict implementation of rules and regulations pertaining to labor relations and standards most especially on hiring and employment status of regular and non-regular workers. — /JPM