BPO workers call on Labor Secretary Bello to intervene in Return-To-Office order

With days to go to before the April 1 deadline for some 1.4 million IT and BPO employees to return to their offices as per an order from the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) of the Department of Finance (DoF), the group Inter-Call Center Association of Workers (ICCAW) called on Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello to intervene as no consultation was done to get the voice and participation of workers affected.

 

“The RTO is a recipe for disaster. It is an ‘April Fools’ prank’ that endangers occupational safety and health, and work-life balance,” stated Bryan Nadua of ICCAW and a BPO employee in Pasig. The FIRB cited the CREATE Law that provides that BPO as economic zones must “exclusively conducted or operated within the geographical boundaries of the zone or freeport.”

 

Yesterday, Nadua along with other BPO employees Charmaine Doble and KR Raposas held a press conference to emphasize the urgency of the matter. The concerned BPO workers also expressed support for the Change.org petition of the groups BPO Employees for Leni-Kiko and IT&BPO Professionals for Leni and Kiko opposing the return to office order

 

Nadua insisted that “Dapat balik trabahong ligtas para sa BPO workers. Mandating the return to office of 1.4 million IT and BPO workers on the sole basis of economic and tax reasons disregards the issue of health and safety of employees.”

 

“Even before the pandemic, if one BPO employee gets a cough or cold, in a day or two, someone else will show similar symptoms due to infection. Headsets too are sometimes shared among employees and are another way by which COVID-19 might be easily transmitted in a 100% fully operational scenario,” averred Jodie Villanueva, a former Customer Service Representative before becoming an HR Manager in a BPO in one of her previous engagements. Villanue represented the women’s committee of Partido Manggagawa in the presscon yesterday.

 

According to the concerned BPO workers, alternatives to a full RTO by April 1 can be considered such as 50 to 75% of BPO workers returning to the office and implementing a compressed work week while maintaining the work from home or anywhere for the rest of the week.

 

The FB livestream of the presscon can be publicly accessed at https://fb.watch/b-DGOQoOZ8/ [note: there was no audio at the start of the video due to technical issues but the audio returns around 2:12].

 

BPO workers shout out against RTO: https://www.facebook.com/649423938410656/videos/362895729061725/

March 28, 2022

Inter-Call Center Association of Workers

 

An appeal for the suspension of the April 1 Return-To-Office order for BPO workers

As concerned employees in IT and BPO companies, we appeal to the government to suspend the Return-To-Office (RTO) on April 1. Dapat balik trabahong ligtas para sa BPO workers. Mandating the return to office of 1.4 million IT and BPO workers on the sole basis of economic and tax reasons disregards the issue of health and safety of employees.

 

The RTO is a recipe for disaster. It is an “April Fools’ prank” that endangers occupational safety and health, and work-life balance.

 

We support the Change.org petition of the groups BPO Employees for Leni-Kiko and IT&BPO Professionals for Leni and Kiko opposing the return to office order by the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) of the Department of Finance (DoF). The FIRB cited the CREATE Law that provides that BPO as economic zones must “exclusively conducted or operated within the geographical boundaries of the zone or freeport.”

 

In contrast to the FIRB and DoF position, we believe that safety committees, with employee representation, are in the best position to evaluate safety in our workplaces and recommend a safe full RTO or to maintain the present hybrid setup—not a government that ignores real-life conditions.

 

Even before the pandemic, if one BPO employee gets a cough or cold, in a day or two, someone else will show similar symptoms due to infection. Headsets too are sometimes shared among employees and are another way by which COVID-19 might be easily transmitted in a 100% fully operational scenario.

 

Alternatives to a full RTO by April 1 can be considered such as 50 to 75% of BPO workers returning to the office and implementing a compressed work week while maintaining the work from home or anywhere for the rest of the week.

 

The Philippines subscribes to the principle of tripartism and social dialogue and yet the return to office order was without the benefit of consultation and discussion with BPO workers. We ask Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello to initiate a tripartite social dialogue, that must include representatives of BPO workers, to come up with an acceptable solution to the return to office in BPOs. ###

 

The Inter-Call Center Association of Workers (ICCAW) is a DOLE-registered workers’ association that was formed in 2012 out of the struggle of 667 employees of a call center in Cebu City which unceremoniously closed down.

Press Statement

March 27, 2022

Inter-Call Center Association of Workers

Media Advisory: BPO workers presscon today vs April 1 RTO

Media Advisory

March 27, 2022

Inter Call Center Association of Workers

Contact Bryan Nadua @ 09569778484

 

“April Fools’ Prank”: BPO workers shout out against April 1 Return-to-Office Order

 

What: Calling the government’s April 1 Return-to-Office order (RTO) for some 1.4 million BPO employees an “April Fools’ prank” that endangers safety and health, and work-life balance,

BPO workers are appealing against implementation of the RTO

 

When: Today, March 27 (Sunday), 11:00 am

 

Where: 766 Edsa ALAB Leni-Kiko Volunteer Center (formerly Victory Liner) near Kamias

 

Details: BPO workers and friends will speak about their concerns on the impending RTO on April 1. Aside from issues over occupational safety and health, and work-life balance, they are raising the question of social dialogue and asserting that BPO workers were not consulted on the RTO.

Dagdag-bawi ang gobyerno sa pagtaas ng sweldo!

 

A wage subsidy and a 4-day work week should complement not replace a wage hike. A complete package of responses includes an across-the-board wage hike for all workers, wage subsidy for MSMEs which cannot afford the pay increase, P10,000 ayuda for informal workers and an expansion of the 4Ps in terms of coverage and benefits for indigents.

 

The P100 that we are proposing is not even a wage hike. It is just wage recovery. Wages have lost their value due to runaway inflation for the past three years! The P100 wage recovery must be across-the-board since all workers have been affected by high food and fuel prices. It must be legislated by Congress when it convenes for a special session to tackle the economic crisis.

 

Why is it that workers are always first to sacrifice during an economic crisis and last (if at all) to benefit during a business boom?

 

A 4-day work week or compresed work week (CWW) without overtime pay is abuse of workers. CWW would be acceptable to workers if overtime pay is provided. More money in the hands of workers means more money to be spent for goods and services (unlike the rich, the working poor consume all their income) and thus would be good for economic recovery.

 

The multiple and intersecting covariate shocks of runaway inflation, supertyphoons and the pandemic is a wake-up call for long-term and transformative solutions. We must fund universal health care. We must shift to renewable energy and create climate jobs. We must support farmers for food sovereignty. We must promote an industrial policy that generates full employment.

Press Statement

March 17, 2022

“Wag kang kuripot”—labor group to Joey Concepcion

Photo from Manila Bulletin 

 

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) called out presidential adviser for entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion for opposing the demand for a wage hike. “Wag kang kuripot! Workers have been waiting for two to three years already for a minimum wage hike. Asking them to wait for the possible suspension of the excise tax betrays the greedy capitalist in Joey Conception,” stated Rene Magtubo, PM national chair and Marikina City councilor.

 

The group asserted that even small businesses can afford to give their workers a pay increase. “Before the pandemic, businesses, both big and small, accumulated revenues and profit without sharing the productivity gains to their workers. From 2001 to 2016, the economy doubled in size and productivity increased by 50% but real wages remained stagnant. The pie became larger but the slice of workers remained the same. Employers pocketed the productivity gains accruing from the blood and sweat of workers,” explained Magtubo.

 

PM had earlier called for a P100 legislated wage hike even as Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello asked the regional wage boards to review the possibility of a minimum pay hike. The group is asking that the proposed emergency session of Congress tackle a legislated wage hike.

 

“Numerous studies suggest that minimum wage hikes do not lead to increases in unemployment nor prices. Inflation and retrenchments are just convenient bogeys for government and employers to scare the public against a wage hike,” Magtubo clarified.

 

He added that “P100 is just a wage recovery not a real increase in salaries. From 2018 to the present, real wages have declined by a significant amount of 8%. The National Wages and Productivity Commission’s own data shows that as of February 2022, the P537 minimum wage in Metro Manila is worth only P494 due to inflation since 2018.”

 

“The economic slump is not an argument against a pay increase. Instead it is a reason to provide money to consumers through a wage hike. Boosting the purchasing power of consumers—especially lowly paid workers who spend most of their take-home pay compared to high income earners—will pump prime the economy and lead to the revival of MSMEs,” Magtubo averred.

 

PM pointed out that a MSME with 10 workers, will only incur an additional P1,000 in daily wage costs which translates to 10% of its P 3 million asset size. “This will definitely not bankrupt an MSME. But a lack of market because of low consumption will kill an MSME. A wage hike will create a virtuous cycle in the economy. Capitalists just do not want to share the profit they have accumulated through a decade and a half of sustained economic growth,” Magtubo expounded.

March 14, 2022