Remote monitoring

Workers at call centre giant Teleperformance, which employs around 383,000 workers worldwide, won their fight against the mandatory installation of webcams in their homes, according to the union-backed Call Centre Collective. The webcams will now be voluntary.

Call Centre Collective spokesperson Lesley-Anne Ure told a Hazards Campaign Thursday Talk in May 2021 that there is already “overbearing performance monitoring” of call centre workers in the sector. The remote monitoring of homeworkers using webcams introduces further problems ranging from invasion of privacy to mental health issues.

The Scottish TUC and CWU communication workers’ union both support the collective, which is working to organise unorganised call centre workers and improve their working conditions across Scotland. The group emerged in response to the research carried out by Strathclyde University professor Phil Taylor (see page 10).

“We’ve won the battle, but not the war,” Ure told the online event.

For more information about the Call Centre Collective and resources including risk assessment checklists see: https://www.betterthanzero.scot/callcentrecollective