Indian BPO workers form online ‘union’
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Call-centre worker body will use stock market sabotage and customer dialogue to pressure employers into improving conditions
Frustrated with the unwillingness of their employers to negotiate with traditional trade unions, some employees of Indian business process outsourcing providers have taken matters into their own hands.
The Times newspaper reported this weekend on BPO Union, an online organisation formed to empower Indian BPO workers, the majority of whom are call-centre operatives.
The organisation’s website warns that when BPO providers treat workers unfairly, it will respond by directly informing that company’s customers and investors of the unsatisfactory working conditions. The intended effect is to damage the share price, forcing executive management to intervene.
“Our main idea is to educate [investors and executives] how the people who engage daily operations, who dismiss unions with disdain, will cause harm to their stock prices when there is immense public humility and media pressure,” the organisation’s leader, known only as Chief, remarks on its website.
BPO Union was formed after IT services provider Keane announced plans to lay off 400 employees. The organisation claims to be organising peaceful protests against the company’s treatment of its employees in the major BPO hubs of India, as well as ‘roadshows’ in the US and UK.
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