CIOL:Workers of Indian BPOs unite?

PUNE: Leading trade unions in the country are now mulling the direct membership route to entice BPO employees into their folds.

Managements have understandably given a deaf ear to the union rhetoric so far and hence the direct enlisting stratagem is on the cards now. The impregnable BPO fortress hasn’t yet lost its lure for trade unions, notwithstanding the fact that many recent efforts by a formidable union to garner employee memberships ended in a damp squib.

So, why are they not letting the BPOs just be?

Industry ire

Unions have their own list of arguments in favour of bringing BPOs under their realm: odd working hours, work life stress, health hazards, fringe benefit tax, the power of collective bargaining, women’s security, psychological pressures, etc.

Industry’s rejoinder is predictable – the attrition bete noire is too huge to let any welfare concerns go overlooked, salaries are jaw-dropping handsome, employee-friendly policies are the norms rather than exceptions, nobody pampers their employees the way BPOs do, grievances if any, find a quick, easy one-knock open door to HR and it’s amongst the most plush and palatial workplace today.

“Normally unions are for staging strikes and opposition on issues like salaries and bonus. No BPO company today can afford to ignore these factors given the demand-supply inequation. In a space where open-door policy, fat pay checks, parties, five-day week are the norms, what will unions do,” says Mudassar Virani, the assistant manager of operations at IBM Daksh in Pune.

Geeta Sundaram, a BPO veteran and general manager at a leading BPO in Chennai sounds off a caustic dissent note. “It’s sheer nonsense. Why are we even talking about such a proposition? If you want anything to be done through trade unions, you probably won’t get anything get done in India. It destroys both the sides, the employees as well the employers. And what is this refrain about exploiting BPO employees through night shifts? Don’t traditional telephone operators in India or nurses have night duties too? We not only pay, but pamper employees generously too. Why even put the idea of a union in someone’s mind? Don’t even entertain a thought about this.”

Union’s canons

The same question was repeated to Ajit Abhyankar, president of CITU (Centre of Indian Trade Unions) in Pune. Does the industry really need unions?

“Yes,” is the answer and he backs it up with four points: “First, it’s a unique industry set up where employees are nationally bound but employers are internationally pinned, thereby creating a possibility that they might vanish any time. Second, international solidarity would be fallout of unionization. Third, the nexus between MNCs and government is too strong to allow individual employees any strength of voice. Fourth, it’s an industry padded with abominable work conditions.”

Manasi Dutta, a team leader at EXL Pune strongly objects. “Come on, everyone who joins a BPO is checked on the willingness to work in shifts at the inception itself, that’s what a BPO employee gets a succulent salary for. If s/he is averse to the idea, why join it.”

Abhyankar is quick to retort. “Contractual commitments are not above law or moral ethics. There are limits on individual capacity that cannot be stretched continuously for months or years. Besides that there is the issue of dignity of work, look at the way irate clients talk to BPO employees or treat them.”

Whatever said and done, the ‘voice’ that unions are clamoring for doesn’t seem to be bothered at all. Employees haven’t given any significant acquiescence to the union rhetoric so far.

We don’t need them

Amin Wadhwani, a five-year seasoned BPO employee with stints at E-Serve and GECIS gives an unconditional ‘No’. “We don’t need unions. What for? Look at the over-the-rooftop salaries a fresher gets in a BPO or the yawning gap in demand-supply, HR can just not afford to ignore an employee’s welfare. Instead of being a help, unions will only adulterate the work environment in BPOs.”

Safoora Hamdula, an employee at AXA seconds, “I don’t know how and where unions will add to the comforts HR provides us. We are given a royal treatment and taken really good care of.”

“To be frank, yes, the employees haven’t shown the desired enthusiasm as of today,” admits Abyankar. “It’s an industry where every individual considers himself to be a unique entity and thus suppresses collective opinions. To start with, the allure of rich pay packets and a plush lifestyle obscures these concerns. It’s in the second phase that they might realize and ask: Is it really what we are after, isn’t there more to it besides the fat money? I think that as the industry stabilizes, there will be a clear imperative for a collective voice. In two-three years we might see individual fights graduating to court suits that will culminate to unions.”

Dutta however feels that the industry is too unstructured to accommodate any unions today. “I have worked in other industries too. Compare a BPO with a banking, hotel, construction industry and you know that no other industry treats its employees with so much care. Apart from a few logistics concerns, I have never faced any snags at HR so far.”

Union leaders don’t nod in agreement when told that HR pampers employees in a BPO.

“Just because some people smile at you, address you by your first name, give you an AC or a cup of coffee doesn’t democratize the whole culture. We have no fight with the management, they too are sans-power. The actual decision making power here vests with the Capital facet and that is what we are objecting to,” emphasizes Abhyankar. “If production process is social, same should apply to decision making too.”

He feels that HR at times is used as a shock absorber. “HR is no solution to an employee’s right. They don’t understand the issue in the first place, even if they so either they play ignorance or pretend it. They are not in a position to understand the concern beyond their mundane duties. It’s a fight against capital.”

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