Dell Agents:  Different pay for same job
By Nosmo King

There is dissent among the highly skilled Agents working at Dell Centre at Pasay in Philippines.  What really irritates these hard working, respected techies is that their new colleagues are getting paid more than them for doing the same job.  In fact, according to Dell insiders these higher paid new comers, although skilled, have lesser trouble shooting experience than the longer serving employees

Dell Pasay was the first Dell owned Center in the Philippines.  It started with CTS (Consumer and Technical Support) Agents who supported American consumers and home users who had purchased a hardware warranty.   Put simply,  such CTS Agents worked to resolve hardware failure,  Operating system issues etc.  But soon they learnt all the subtleties of the Dell computers.  These Dell pioneers at Pasay did such an excellent job that soon Dell HQ in USA transferred On Call support and other high level trouble-shooting from Canada to Philippines.  On Call support is a fee based service and falls outside the scope of hardware warranty.  Typically, On Call support involves high level skills like setting up wireless networking, removing malware etc. 

Soon, all CTS Agents were merged with On-Call Agents at the Dell Pasay site.  Before their merger with the On Call team, CTS Agents had varied salaries from 19,000 to 21,000 pesos/month.  There was some heartburn as  Agents having the same Title, same work and same skills were paid different salaries.  The CTC Agents grinned and bore it.
 
The simmering tension over salary disparity boiled over when Dell started recruiting new Dell On Call agents on salaries with a base of 24,000 pesos.  Tenured Consumer and Technical Agents who are part of the team still get a basic 19,000 pesos salary, while the On Call guy/girl working in the next station is paid a base of 24,000 pesos for the same job.
 
This anger over salary discrepancies boiled over and soon the following anonymous email was doing the rounds of the Dell office.  It says it all:

 “
From: cts to doc [mailto:ifeelbadatdis@live.com]
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2008 2:21 AM
To: PSY CTS Team; PSY XPS Team; PSY_DOC_TECHS; PSY Wireless Team
Subject: how I feel about dell
 
I am so happy at Dell.
 
Why?
 
Here's why.
 
When I applied for the position Technical Support Senior Assistant, I was so excited when I got accepted and signed for the job offer with Kevin.
 
Being a Consumer Technical Support is exciting.  Now I am on DOC or Dell On Call.  Not by choice, but because of Organizational Change. No big deal, take it as a challenge.  New area of expertise will be enhanced.  I will have a chance, from A5 agent to become B1 agent – meaning higher pay,  as long as I passed the ACI qualifications.
 
Fortunately, I am not alone in this new venture.  There are other agents that applied for the position.  They are not internally hired but externally.
 
Wow! New members of the family that will learn the Soul of Dell.
 
I can consider them lucky.
 
Again, why?

Well, they will start as A5 and have a chance to become B1 as well. Their starting salary is Php 24,000.00 as I heard.
 
That is so GREAT!
 
Hey wait a second!
 
My starting salary is only Php 19,000.00 and that was more that a year ago.  I did not choose to be transferred to DOC (Dell On Call), why do I still earn a basic salary of Php 19,000.00.  Even if the new hired will not get the Php 1,500.00 clothing allowance and Php 1,500.00 meal allowance, still they earn more than me and we are on the same title/position.
 
I doubt they will not get those perks.
 
Now I wonder what the agents from XPS or Wireless or Customer Care would think….
 
Well now… all I can say is I really feel bad about Dell.
“