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A union makes the difference between low-quality, high-risk, isolating jobs and a secure, fulfilling career in the world’s call centres, said UNI Global Union today.

October is Call Centre Action Month and UNI and its affiliates around the world will be calling on one company in particular, Telefonica, to give its workers the chance to have a union.

In addition, UNI today released a report based on interviews with 12 call centre workers across the globe. The report gives an in-depth look into their working lives and shows why call centre workers who can join a union and demand basic rights are much happier and more productive.

Most of the world’s call centre workers are closely monitored, expected to meet unrealistic performance targets, have low job discretion, earn low wages, have no union or labour rights and lack of job security.

“Today, call centre workers all around the world will start a month of coordinated actions to gain a fair deal at work. Hundreds of thousands of unionised call centre workers in the world have decent jobs, with fair, safe working conditions, but non-union call centre workers do not,” said Marcus Courtney, head of UNI Telecom. “We want to ensure that every call centre worker, wherever they are can bargain a fair deal for their work, which means better wages, safer working conditions, increased job security and above all respect on the job.”

A global study of call centre work from researchers at Cornell University in 2007 revealed that around 70% of all call centre staff work in “low, or very low, quality” jobs.

This year UNI and its affiliated unions are focusing their call-centre organising work on Telefonica, one of the world’s largest companies with 250,000 employees and revenue of €60 billion per year. The company is based in Spain, operates in 25 countries worldwide and it recently announced that it will expand into 15 new countries in Europe.

In 2000, Telefonica became one of the first companies in the world to sign a global agreement with UNI, guaranteeing basic labour rights for all of its workers, wherever they are in the world.

In Latin America, however, at Telefonica`s wholly-owned subsidiary Atento many workers are not unionised and are being denied the opportunity to join a union.

Tens of thousands of Atento workers are denied the right to freedom of association. In Mexico, for example, workers have been intimidated, harassed and even dismissed for supporting their union. Atento employs over 100,000 people, almost half of Telefonica’s entire workforce.

“UNI calls upon Telefonica to honour its commitment made in the global agreement that allows any worker for the company, whether they are from Madrid or Mexico City, the freedom to bargain and organize for a fair deal without interference from management,” said UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings.

It is not only in Latin America that Telefonica workers are refused their rights. In the Republic of Ireland, Telefonica’s subsidiary O2 has interfered with its workers' right to organise and refuses to recognise the union for the purposes of collective bargaining.

During Call Centre Action Month throughout October 2009, UNI and its affiliates are calling on Telefonica CEO Cesar Alierta to act in accordance with the global agreement with UNI and ensure that workers’ rights are upheld everywhere.

Unions in countries as diverse as Ireland, Mexico, Brazil, the United States, Colombia, Cameroon, South Africa, Belgium, Tunisia, France and Australia will participate in this international action. For more information about the daily lives of call centre staff, both at work and at home, you can download UNI’s research report A World on the Phone released today at our website: www.callcentreaction.org (Note: the report will be available in French, German, Spanish and Dutch next week).

Call Centre Action Month

UNI Global Union runs Call Centre Action Month every October. We focus on organising in call centres around the world, sharing our experiences and take joint action to build our power and to improve the lives of call centre workers.

UNI Global Union

UNI Global Union is the global union for skills and services, representing 900 unions and 20 million workers in 150 countries worldwide. UNI Telecom represents 3 million telecommunications workers worldwide.