Several labor groups opposed the government’s order for business process outsourcing or call center workers to return to office by April 1, saying it did not give any assurance that BPO workers would be safe from the virus and from adequate transportation amid the rising cost of petroleum products.
The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) said BPO workers must be safe when they return to their offices.
“Mandating the return to office of 1.4 million IT and BPO workers on the sole basis of economic and tax reasons disregards the issue of health and safety of employees. This is a recipe for disaster,” Bryan Nadua of PM said.
Rachel Balares, who heads a group of BPO workers, said the return to office work would compromise their safety and hurt their productivity.
“Our ability to work from home or work from anywhere helps keep us and our families safe. And we all know that we are not completely out of the woods yet of the pandemic,” Balares said.
Another group of BPO Employees also opposed the return to officer order by the Fiscal Incentives Review Board of the Department of Finance.
The FIRB cited the CREATE Law that provides that BPO as economic zones must “exclusively conducted or operated within the geographical boundaries of the zone or freeport.”
In contrast the BPO workers argue that “The occupational safety and health committees, with employee representation, are in the best position to evaluate safety in our workplaces and recommend a safe full RTO or to maintain the present hybrid setup – not a government that ignores real-life conditions.”
Nadua emphasized that the Philippines subscribed to the principle of tripartism and social dialogue and yet the return to office order was without the benefit of consultation and discussion with BPO workers.
Jodelle Villanueva, a former Customer Service Representative before becoming an HR Manager in a BPO in one of her previous engagements, argued that COVID-19 is very transmissible in the enclosed office setting of BPOs.
“Even before the pandemic, if one BPO employee gets a cough or cold, in a day or two, someone else will show similar symptoms due to infection. Headsets too are sometimes shared among employees and are another way by which COVID-19 might be easily transmitted in a 100 percent fully operational scenario,” Villanueva added.
Both Villanueva and Nadua are suggesting that alternatives be considered such as 50 to 75 percent of BPO workers returning to the office and implementing a compressed work week while maintaining the work for home or anywhere for the rest of the week.
The PM is calling on Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello to initiate a tripartite social dialogue, that must include representatives of BPO workers, to come up with an acceptable solution to the return to office in BPOs.