[APWSLMembers 221] Call centers, hub for exploitation - KMU

[Kilusang Mayo Uno]

KMU NEWS RELEASE
March 30, 2006

Call centers, hub for exploitation - KMU

The militant labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) today said that 
call center are great examples of how workers are being exploited.

"At first glance, people think that call center jobs pay high. But 
the truth is call center workers are being exploited," said KMU 
Spokesperson Prestoline Suyat.

Suyat said that call center workers, in entry level, are being paid 
an average of P15,000. But in the United States, he said, with a 
minimum wage of $4/ hour, a call center worker gets an equivalent of 
P40,000/month, "With the same amount of work, our call center workers 
are receiving a lot less.  This cost-saving measure means greater 
profit for the business process outsourcing (BPO) like the call 
center industry but translates to greater exploitation for poor 
countries like the Philippines."

Suyat also noted that P15,000 monthly salary still fall short of the 
monthly cost of living amounting to P19,950.  "When every price 
skyrockets every day, wage erosion eats at the hard earned money of 
the workers," said Suyat.

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo pimping the country's cream of the crop

Suyat affirms the recent study revealing the loss of "mission 
critical" jobs which he said, in actuality, is pushing highly skilled 
and educated Filipinos to suffer worst working condition under the 
guise of a high paying job.

The labor group's spokesperson further explains that the call center 
industry contributed to the stunting of economic growth, "Mrs. Arroyo 
serves as a pimp to the best of the present and upcoming generation 
of Filipinos. Call centers do not contribute to industrializing the 
country and yet the president is wholesaling the best graduates of 
education, mathematics, or even engineers from best schools to be 
telephone operators."

Suyat also criticized President Arroyo's call for government 
employees, especially those opting for voluntary retirement to 
consider becoming call center operators to earn higher wages while 
streamlining the bureaucracy.

"President Arroyo gives false hopes to our countrymen while at the 
same time promoting anti-workers policies such as retrenchments which 
they call as rationalization or streamlining of bureaucracy. How can 
middle aged or retirable employees work in call centers when the 
industry work schedule means working during graveyard shifts?  This 
is the main reason why there is low blood levels are the norm for 
call center agents caused or aggravated by lack of sleep due to work 
schedules," Suyat stressed.

According to the independent labor think tank Ecumenical Institute 
for Labor Education and Research, Inc. (EILER, Inc.), the labor 
intensive call centers does redound to improving industrial capacity 
of the country. The group said that the call center industry as a 
centerpiece of the administration's job generation program through 
the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) is highly problematic.

Attesting to this, EILER further noted, is the reduction in the 
country's volume of output of local factories to 2.8% this January 
from a year earlier despite the government's claim of a robust 
economy and proliferating call center jobs, "Jobs in critical sectors 
of the economy have drastically been reduced because of globalization." ###