Information Society Watch

December 7, 2007, Deccan Herald

Citing pressures of work, long hours, and job insecurity as their reasons, employees in ITES sectors -- including BPOs and call centres -- are increasingly joining employee unions. This article presents some of the findings about industry-employee relations in the BPO sector that are revealed by an independent study by the Strathclyde Business School and IIM-Ahmedabad that surveyed several hundred members of the Union of IT Enabled Services Professionals (UNITES Pro). The article illustrates its point with some statistics--for example, conditions such as average employee tenure of 1.5 years and an gruelling work schedule of 54 hours per week lead around 75% of union members to join the union in anticipation of improved pay and conditions. The study also examines causes of workplace stress and deconstructs the hierarchies of workplace set-ups.

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