News

Agreement shows that workers’ rights can be respected in offshore locations

NYON, 19 April 2018— Customer care outsourcing giant Teleperformance has reached a landmark agreement with the union representing its contact centre employees in the Dominican Republic—one of the company’s fastest growing regions, which services the US market. The agreement with SITRATEL (Sindicato de Trabajadores de Teleperformance) comes after nearly one year of negotiation between the parties.

It is the first of its kind in the Dominican Republic, and the agreement will allow the union to better represent and recruit Teleperformance employees.

The General Secretary of SITRATEL, Juan Ferreras said, “This agreement establishes a relationship between Teleperformance workers and management based on dialogue and respect, and we look forward to working with the company to make Teleperformance better for employees and customers”.

Under the agreement, Teleperformance and SITRATEL have agreed to the following:

• The company will be neutral with regards to union membership and respect workers’ right to freedom of association.
• Teleperformance will provide paid time-off for union representatives to talk to employees about union membership.
• There will be a space at the inductions of new employees to explain the benefits of union membership.

Ygnacio Hernandez, President of the FEDOTRAZONAS labour federation to which SITRATEL belongs, said, “Contact centres are becoming increasingly important for the Dominican Republic’s economy. The agreement with Teleperformance sets a strong precedent for workers and the industry.”

Alke Boessiger, the Head of Department for UNI ICTS, said that the deal with Teleperformance in the Dominican Republic, “shows that workers’ rights can and should be respected in offshored contact centre locations”. Ms Boessiger went on to say, “Teleperformance is taking positive and necessary steps to be a socially responsible employer by recognizing workers’ union in the Dominican Republic, and we will continue to work with the company—and with this industry—to improve working conditions throughout the globe”.

Teleperformance is the largest provider of outsourced contact centres globally, with more than 217,000 employees in more than 65 countries. Teleperformance in the Dominican Republic provides English language contact centre services for United States based clients in the telecommunications, healthcare, transport and retail sectors. Call centres employ over 30,000 people in the Dominican Republic, mostly for the United States market.

"This agreement with Teleprformance is the first step in ensuring that workers’ rights are respected in all contact centres in the Dominican Republic", said Luis Comas, Secretary of Union Action for SITRATEL.

SITRATEL is an enterprise based union that represents workers at Teleperformance in the Dominican Republic. SITRATEL is a member of the FEDOTRAZONAS labour federation, which is an affiliate of UNI Global Union. UNI’s Information and Communication Technology Services (ICTS) sector represents over 3 million workers around the world.