The Philippines Leads the World in Call Center Jobs, so Why are Filipino Workers Treated Like They're Disposable?

Photo source: ALL Workers Unity Facebook Page

“Hi! Thank you for calling customer service! I know you need help with your service…but we agents need help as well!”

The Philippines is branded as the call center capital of the world. And chances are, folks in the diaspora have unknowingly spoken to a kababayan on the other end of a customer service call. But behind the cheerful voice and scripted lines are workers battling long nights, low pay, and corporate exploitation. It’s time we paid attention to what Filipino agents are really up against.

The call center industry, also known as Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry is relatively new but it’s playing a major role in the Philippine economy, especially at the times when most business sectors stopped their operations at the height of the pandemic, the BPO industry kept the local economy afloat. 

Since its inception in the early 1990s, the Philippines became a safe haven of multinational and transnational companies that are looking for ways to increase their superprofits and hire workers that can be paid way cheaper than their onshore counterparts for the same (or even better) service delivery for their clients and customers. In 2024, the IT-BPO industry in the Philippines reached $38 billion in revenues, holding 10-15% of the global BPO market and having a 1.82 million-strong workforce. Based on IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP)’s Philippine IT-BPM Industry Roadmap 2028, the projected revenues by 2028 would be at $59 billion, with 2.5 million workforce. The revenues that the BPO industry’s showing are in good numbers, but how about the BPO workers’ salary and working conditions? Well, that’s a different story.

While the profits of multinational and transnational companies and labor productivity of BPO workers increase, the wages didn’t, and in most cases, race-to-the-bottom wages happen where companies are decreasing wages to increase more of their profits and make the industry and the global market more competitive.

Aside from the wage concerns, the BPO industry, especially in the Philippines, is known for its toxic working conditions. Most of its workers are working in graveyard shifts to cater the needs of its Western clients and customers, bombarded further with highly-monitored performance metrics and adherence to schedules to meet the head count and productivity hours that the clients demand to keep their service delivery at the optimal rate. Labor flexibility schemes are also implemented, such as shifting schedules, mandatory overtime, deferred breaks and lunches, compressed/reduced work week, and multiple job assignments, further exploiting the workers.

Photo Source: Mayday Multimedia

With the mentioned state of working conditions the BPO workers are facing, there is a high attrition rate or number of workers leaving their jobs, trying to look for better pay and better conditions from one company after another, in addition to floating, constructive and illegal dismissal, and automation that affects their job security; the same conditions also compromise the occupational health and safety of the workers, causing real-life and long-term consequences to their health and safety, after prolonged stress caused by such working conditions.

Forming workers organizations and unions are also monitored, such attempts are facing backlash and retaliation by the management. Workers making a dispute about their wages and working conditions need to go to the needle hole of bureaucracy just to plead their cases against abusive employers and management. Workers cannot collectively bargain for their demands without a union.

Even if BPO companies present themselves as inclusive for women and queer people, gender-based discrimination is rampant in these spaces, from hiring preferences of employers to promotion opportunities; harassment in the world of work is also a pressing issue, lacking grievance redress mechanisms on handling such concerns, with weak implementation of anti-sexual harassment laws and lack of anti-discrimination law just making it worse.

Photo Source: Mayday Multimedia

BPO Industry Employees Network (BIEN) is one of the leading labor centers in the Philippines that cater for the concerns of BPO workers, putting forward the BPO Labor Standards, a campaign that amplifies the needs and demands of BPO workers towards higher wages, security of tenure, better working conditions, freedom of association and self-organization, and anti-discrimination and gender sensitivity. BIEN is also lobbying for the Magna Carta for BPO Workers Bill in the halls of the Philippine Congress.

As a feminist social enterprise that advocates for workers rights, Pinay Collection stands in solidarity with BIEN’s on-ground and lobbying efforts to push forward the rights of BPO workers in the Philippines. It’s about time and it is right and just for them to have dignified wages and better working conditions!

To know more about BIEN’s advocacy and to get updated to their press releases and on-ground activities, kindly follow them on their social media platforms and to their website, bienphilippines.wordpress.com.

BPO Workers, Unite! Advance the BPO Labor Standards! BPO Workers, Unionize Now!

Sources:

• BPO sector revenue seen nearing $38-B mark, Alden M. Monzon, Inquirer.net, Oct 2024
• Work Flexibilisation and Its Impact on BPO Women Workers in  Metro Manila, Philippines, BIEN, 2019
• PH BPO sector is plagued with gender inequality — survey, Outsource Accelerator, June 2022
• A collection of articles and statements from bienphilippines.wordpress.com.