News

Last week, the Australian Services Union (ASU) launched its response to high, and rising, stress levels in call centres.



The ASU released a national research report on call centre work.



The call centre industry is huge in Australia, already employing 1 in 40 people working in the country, and growing fast.



The national survey of 1,548 workers shows high levels of stress, significantly increased since a benchmark survey in 2000.



ASU Assistant National Secretary, Linda White said: "The report paints a picture of the people on the other end of the line. Workers dealing with an abusive caller, being over monitored, under trained, in an understaffed workplace answering the 16 million calls made to Australian call centres every day."



As well as stress, workers raised a range of work issues including a lack of training and support, excessive monitoring, lack of breaks and opportunities to take leave, ergonomics and concerns their jobs would go overseas.



In response to the disturbing stress levels among workers in the industry, the ASU has launched the Stress-o-meter. This tool allows workers to answer stress-related questions via a website and to evaluate their stress levels. The Stress-o-meter will allow individuals to measure their own health, while providing data for the union to evaluate the industry overall.



"Over 250,000 employees work in over 3,800 call centres Australia wide. The sector is one of the fastest growing areas of work and we need to ensure that it is a safe and prosperous sector of the economy".



For more information the ASU's work on call centres visit: http://www.callcentreunion.com.au