by Santosh Digal

With 900,000 employees and billions of dollars in business, call centres are a key industry for the Philippines. However, gruelling night shifts generate stress and anxiety among workers, who often are unable to see their families or even go to Sunday Mass.

Manila (AsiaNews) – In the Philippines, English-language business process outsourcing (BPO), better known as the call centre industry, employs about 900,000 people and generates about US$ 11 billion in business. Geared primarily towards the United States and Europe, the sector pays on average about US$ 850 a month, a coveted salary in a country with high levels of poverty and unemployment. However, since much of the work is done at night to cater to Western customers with gruelling shifts, it is a major source of stress, family problems and spiritual concerns.

“To keep myself awake at night, I used to smoke a lot for the last five years along with my colleagues. Consequently, my smoking caused many health problems,” said Christine Gaga, a 25-year Catholic single woman and a nursing graduate from Manila.

“When I return home from my work at dawn, my working parents and six siblings are out either for their education or respective works. When they return home from work, I am out for my work,” she said.

Her job has thus deprived her of a family life. “Before my work in the call centre, we used to pray the rosary daily at home at night and go together to a local parish church for Sunday Mass and,” Gaga said. “Due to my erratic working schedules, I am unable to do so, even if I wanted to.”

This has led to a sense of anxiety and stress in her. Her parents have suggested she find another job, even if it pays less, and she might just do that. In fact for her, “economic reasons are not everything in life. What matter is faith in God, health family ties and peace of mind”.

Still, despite the economic crisis that is affecting the Philippines, the number of call centres is going up. The archipelago claims 10 per cent of the industry, which should reach a workforce of a million by 2012 due largely to tax breaks to call centre companies, which run hubs all over the country, including Muslim-dominated Mindanao.

In 2008, the International Data Corporation ranked the Philippines as the second top BPO destination in the Asia-Pacific region.

The year before, the United Kingdom National Outsourcing Association named the Philippines as its “Offshoring Destination of the Year”.

• philippines
• call
• centre
• business
• process
• outsourcing
• bpo
• industry
• wages