Workplace Report June 2021

Health & safety news

Victory over remote monitoring

Workers at call centre giant Teleperformance, which employs around 383,000 workers worldwide, have 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 last month 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 the CWU communications workers’ union both support the collective, which is working to organise unorganised call centre workers and improve their working conditions across Scotland.