Philippines: Call Center blogger Vs Congressman
By Juan Dela Cruz

Philippines, like India, has a booming multi billion dollar BPO sector. And like India, some politicians are using it to score points. Now, an anonymous call center blogger in the Philippines has sparked a lively online debate which pits her and her followers against a young Philippine Congressman and his supporters.

The genesis of this heated online discussion is the politician and law-maker’s BPO Workers Welfare and Protection Act filed in Congress last August.

Techgoss researched this legislative issue and corresponded with this Filipina call center blogger to find out her stand on young Congressman Raymond Palatino’s House Bill no. 6921, a resolution that will further entrench BPO employees’ labor rights and curtail companies from committing unfair treatment. She describes this legislative petition as nothing more than a re-hash of existing labor laws enacted many years ago. She goes on to elaborate that her “beef” with House Bill no. 6921 got bigger after she read the transcript of the Congressman’s privilege speech at the House of Representatives depicting how BPO companies perpetuated atrocious working conditions for their employees. Apparently, he projects BPO’s as modern day slaveships.

This Call Center blogger further discusses her concerns about this bill in her popular outsourcing blog. In her blog post she describes how unfair this Congressman’s speech was to the Filipino BPO workers as not everyone slaves under such atrocious conditions. And to generalize it is a total injustice to them as if they have been forced to slavery by the companies they work for.

Within a few minutes of its posting, the congressman found out about her criticisms of his legislative agenda when he found the call center blogger’s comment on their political party’s youth website. Under anonymous signatures, the Congressman deplores the blogger’s criticism and attempted to defend the content of his speech. He describes his Bill as simply an attempt to force BPO companies to obey labor laws. He also went on to invite his blogger critic to attend congressional committee hearings to prove her commitment on being constructive on the issue.

The blogger has declined any personal participation to tune up this proposed law. In our correspondence, she dismisses Palatino’s speech and Bill and feels that is simply an attempt by the activist-turned-congressman to grandstand in front of lawmakers and look good to BPO workers especially since it will be election year in 2010.

While the blogger indicates that this proposed enactment is still pending in the law-making body, she tells me her blog will continue to scrutinize it for its flaws and lack of understanding of the BPO industry which has brought prosperity to many. While her article contains constructive suggestions for this proposed law, she says she will abstain from active participation in the congressman’s endeavor to avoid being part of his covert political agenda. Her critical article has gained appreciation from other BPO websites like nearshorejournal.com and has got prominent attention from social networking sites like Digg, Yahoo Buzz, Facebook and Twitter.

Like India, in Philippines the politicians want to move in even as the cashed up BPO workers remain apolitical and prefer the free market. 

(Techgoss has published the following on Nov 3, 2009)

Philippine BPOs experience salary war
By Juan Dela Cruz

Philippines call centers this year have seemingly been digging their own graves. Agent salary inflation is becoming a big concern and has been raised as a major conference issue during the last Call Center Association expo. Last year, the Philippines BPO sector had a 21.7% growth, but like India it runs the risk of losing its cost advantage.

Call Centers Association of the Philippines President Benedict Hernandez deplores an annual agent salary hike of 10%, the norm in the past 5 years. He also states this alarming trend cannot be perpetuated by their members else there will come a time in the foreseeable future that the country will lose its edge as the most preferred outsourced call center destination in the world. India too faces this challenge.

In a country where call center passing rate for applicants is pegged between 2-5%, and call center companies practically operate right next door to each other, they are left with no choice but to up their offers and/or present a structured appraisal/wage increase schemes in order to both retain their skilled employees and gain more experienced ones too. A base starting salary of 12,000 pesos 5 years ago have become laughable for call center agents today while any figure above 18,000 will certainly ring a bell and 24,000 will get you applicants trooping your door the next day. A few examples of high salary offers for agents just last week are from Vision-X Inc., recruitment agencies World Pacific and Excel Asia. CCAP President Hernandez presents a simple solution by encouraging companies to offer more performance-based bonuses instead of outright salary hikes. However, this doesn’t fly with call center agents nowadays because they have smartened up to know that performance incentives can easily be taken away anytime on the companies’ prerogative for any justifiable business interests while wages are protected by labor laws and cannot be decreased as easily.

It should be remembered that call centers in major Indian cities had the same problem in the past. In the same manner, the very call centers which Benedict Hernandez presides over here have ignored his stern warning and continue to outdo each other months after he gave the warning. This “salary war” is evident in published job ads to recruit good Agents. Industry experts say Dell’s sale last year was a good example of call center implosion due to higher costs and Agent churn.

In this situation, one may come to wonder which between call center companies and call center agents really pull the strings around the industry. Can companies take back control? Or would this slowly spell the end for much of the booming Philippines outsourcing industry?

(Email me news and tips at 1dealcruise at Gmail dot com)