Sitel BPO employees protest salary cut
By Juan Dela Cruz

Last year’s merger between BPO’s Clientlogic and Sitel has not become a favorable event for a lot of call center agents especially on Sitel’s part. According to the merger, with Clientlogic becoming the major stakeholder for the merger, they have absolute power over the administration of the whole company. This included the decision to reduce current salaries of Sitel call center agents by 25 percent in Philippines.

The recent development had a lot of current employees up in arms complaining of disparity over compensation versus work rendered.  Prior to the merger, Sitel’s call center agents were offered 16,000 pesos as initial basic salary while Clientlogic’s agents received from 12,000-13,000. A few months after the merger, Clientlogic having bought Sitel, decided to reduce wages across all agents in Sitel’s accounts to level their salary cap for rank and file positions in all centers.

After this implementation, growing concerns has become evident as Sitel’s agents are starting to complain on the legality of this move by Clientlogic. According to my source from Sitel, a small group of affected agents have organized to hire a lawyer and explore legal options against Clientlogic’s decision just this week.

Although some may have chosen to fight for their labor and wage rights, others have chosen to walk away and find work elsewhere. According to my source, over one hundred employees have either filed their resignation already or have gone absent without leave since the implementation of the wage cut.

Sitel operates in several major locations in India namely; Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chennai. I wonder if rank and file employees experienced the same wage cut as their counterparts here in the Philippines.

(For questions or comments, please email me at 1delacruise at gmail.com)