
Issue No 58		16 June 2000

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News

Call Centre Battle Hots Up

By Noel Hester

Contract call centres are shaping up as a significant IR battleground in the service sector as unions push for a National Award and the Government and employers try to impose individual contracts as the industry norm.

The Office of the Employment Advocate recently sent out a Hamburger cookbook - the AWA-Call Centres Framework - to more than 9000 call centre employers in an ideological push to establish individual contracts as the principal employment contract for the industry.

Unions are responding with a campaign for a national award which is gaining significant momentum. The ASU, which covers contract call centres has engaged a number of major players in the industry - Teletech, Stellar, Service Partners, Salesforce and Salmat - in the drive for a national award.

The ASU has also won some significant victories at the enterprise level. Union members with national call centre operator Link Communications have just won a collective agreement with a 10% pay rise, much improved leave provisions, delegates rights and training and a commitment to develop an extensive pay structure which properly reflects their skills. The union presence has gone from zero to sixty per cent at Link's NSW, Queensland and South Australian operations.

Stress and poor management the industry norms

ASU National Call Centre Campaign Coordinator Colin Lynch says call centre employees are flocking to the union movement due to the poor working conditions in the unregulated environment of this new industry. A comprehensive national survey of call centres conducted by the ASU revealed 88% of respondents finding their job and workplace stressful. Over half the survey respondents felt they needed more training and support.

'Self regulation of the industry hasn't worked. Evidence from our surveys shows poor management skills and minimum work conditions are the industry norms. Intense competition in this unregulated industry is producing a highly stressed, excessively monitored and poorly trained workforce with low morale,' he said.

'An award is about fixing these problems. It's about trying to clean up the industry. Overseas research backs up our findings that poor management is the key source of stress and burnout in the industry.'

Colin Lynch says research by the key employer associations - ADMA and ATA - has found the same results but their self serving interpretation is different.

'They say the problem is with the individual worker and their answer is to find the 'right' sort of person through psychometric testing. They are trying to fit square pegs into round holes instead of cleaning up their own mess.'

'An award would give standards to the industry. But the award is only one of a number of things needed to improve working conditions for call centre employees. We are also developing OHS standards for the industry and a code of practice for call centre monitoring and surveillance.'

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  Issue 58 contents

Interview: After the Gold Rush
NSW building union leader Andrew Ferguson on life after the Olympics and why Che Guevara is his political hero.

Unions: MUA Women's Policy Back on Course
A hard hitting report by the Maritime Union's women's delegate Sue Gajdos prompts the union to, once again, promote its female members.

Politics: Raising the Rafters
Opposition leader Kim Beazley delivered a stirring address to last weekend's NSW ALP State Conference. Here's every word of it.

History: Time and Tide
Greg Patmore surveys the themes of Working Lives in Regional Australia in this introduction to the latest issue of 'Labour History'

International: Fair in the Land of the Free
More than 20,000 immigrant workers, union members and community and religious leaders packed a Los Angeles Sports Arena on June 10 in support of immigrant workers' rights.

Environment: Life's a Beach
Workers are invited to join an environmental campaign to protect the coastal communities and coastline from exploitation by multinationals.

Satire: More Pacific Coups Forecast
The popular holiday resort of Great Keppel Island is bracing itself for a bloody coup, following the rash of rebel uprisings in other parts of the Pacific.

Review: At the Barricades
Denis Evans' photo essay on the Patrick dispute captures the camaraderie on the Melbourne picket lines - solidarity that, like solder, welded workers and their communities together into a human barricade.

Crackdown on Fiji Workers Intensifies
Building Industry Braces for Post-Games Slump
Call Centre Battle Hots Up
More Sackings Spark Entitlements Showdown
Carr Establishes Labor Hire Inquiry
High Court Puts Workers At Reith's Mercy
Miners Hit the Streets Over Death Threats
Unions Urged to Reignite Republic Debate
Tips Rip-Off Sparks Hotel Picket
Community Workers to Lay Siege to Parliament
Water Workers Accept 14% Pay Rise
Counselling for Workplace Accidents
Korean Food Festival is Union Business
Che Helps Doctors Save Lives
Maude Barlow Public Lecture - Sydney June 27