Remote employment advances at speed in the Cordovan call centers

Within the framework of the mandatory quarantine dictated to prevent the spread and spread of the Covid-19, the activity of the call centers or contact centers had to make, in a short time, many changes to continue operating and, at the same time, protect the conditions staff health.

This is coincidentally indicated by the entities that represent the companies and workers in the sector. The Argentine Chamber of Contact Centers (Cacc) and the Association of Argentine Contact Center Workers (Atacc); respectively.

At the beginning of March, the parties submitted to the authorities of the Ministry of Labor of Córdoba the “Operation protocol before Covid-19”, which was based on the provisions of the sanitary emergency decree 260/2020 and other regulations.

From the application of the mandatory quarantine, the union agreed with the business chamber the implementation of telework for all employees of the country’s activity. It applies to both call center tasks as well as so-called business processes (BPO); the entity reported.

Another novelty in the sector was that the regulatory framework for telework was incorporated directly into the CCT 688/14 collective bargaining agreement.

“It guarantees that workers can continue working from home, maintaining their salary, additional wages, union and labor rights and can avoid being exposed to the spread of this virus,” said Atacc general secretary Walter Franzone.

Essential services

Sources of the Cacc pointed out that the practical implementation of telework is advancing rapidly among companies, despite the fact that it requires effort in terms of investment, adaptation of systems and security.

A few days ago, the percentage of remote workers did not exceed 10 percent in the sector; and today it is approaching 50 percent.

In Córdoba it is estimated that this proportion is even higher. Some 20,000 employees out of the total of almost 50,000 that the sector has in Argentina are based here.

The sector chamber insists that the call centers they provide telephone, network and other support to numerous activities required to continue despite the quarantine: health, telephone and telecommunications, banking and other services. However, he notes, his office activity had to be completely suspended from the application of the quarantine.