Business process outsourcing (BPO) locators are starting to explore possibilities in Davao City. Which means that should they finally decide to operate here, the 6,400 existing contact center agents will increase to 10,000 by 2011. That’s according to Eriberto Barriga, Jr., president of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Davao.
“Contact center” is the correct term for BPO companies, instead of “call center” which connotes “taga-sagot lang ng tawag (only a phone operator),” said Barriga, adding that knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) is now coming in.
It may be possible then that, while waiting for graduation, a college student in whatever course will already be thinking of working in a contact center. Whatever profession he or she is supposed to practice will not be the basis of his/her future employment in any BPO company.
All he or she needs are training not only in handling foreign clients and working in different time zones, but also in performing particular tasks assigned to them. Dabawenyos are widely known to speak better English than their Asian counterparts, and that its talent pool is Davao City’s edge over other so-called “next wave cities for IT outsourcing.”
Although the salary rates in contact centers in Davao City, ranging from P8,000 to P12,000, are much lower than in Manila and Cebu, most applicants are still attracted to this kind of job because of the low cost of living in the city.
In terms of security of tenure, Barriga said it is a fact that tenure in a contact center is only based on two things: the employee’s performance and the closing of accounts. The latter is neither the company’s nor the employee’s fault. It is in this scenario that retrenched employees may apply at other BPOs.
No union
As much as contact center agents are concerned with security of tenure, there is no existing union in any contact center in Davao City. This is also true in other places, according to Dr. Virgel C. Binghay, associate professor and director of the Center for Industry Productivity and Competitiveness, School of Labor and Industrial Relations of the University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City.
In an interview, Binghay said that aside from the fact that there is a universal downtrend of unionism in the world, there are organizational contexts that prohibit people from not joining the union. “For example, the work shifts. It inhibits people from converging and discussing union matters for that matter,” he said.
“I had students in call centers who got very tired after work that they wanted to go home. They really wanted to join unions, except that the circumstances they were in would not push them to join any union,” he said.
Binghay added that there is a need to have alternative forms of workers’ representation to voice out the concerns of the employees. “The company should encourage unionism, otherwise there should be alternative forms of employee representation so that concerns could be aired in the right forum.
“The issues should be discussed properly. Perhaps, conflicts can be addressed or even prevented from coming up,” he said.
“It’s not unlawful to form and join a union, of course, following the prescribed rules. It is legal if the rules are followed,” Binghay said when asked about the legality of forming unions in contact centers.
He said rules include certification of elections if democratic processes are followed. “You also have the right not to join the union. That’s why you have to decide through voting. Nothing’s wrong as long as it does not disturb work. It’s a Constitutional right,” he said.
Proactive human resource
Binghay said that another reason why there’s no union in contact centers is that they are becoming pro-active in the sense that they pay well and provide benefits. “The workers may be asking ‘Is there a need for one?’ ” he said.
“There are more proactive human resource management practices. The human resource management also is another path that may have led to the phenomenon of the decline of unionism. Whereas, before wala naman talagang (there was really no) human resource department,” Binghay said. [Lorie Ann A. Cascaro]
