Latest update November 26th, 2024 1:00 AM
Diamond call centre Director talks of turnaround plan
Narayan Prashad
The Director of the NPI Communications (NPIC) Call Centre in Diamond, East Bank Demerara has defended the Centre against allegations by laid off staff of low wages and less than satisfactory working conditions.
The workers were engaged in converting voice mail to text messages.
The company has had cause to lay off 110 workers thus far, but some of them have spoken about conditions of work, saying they were not pleased with washroom facilities, displeased with how some managers speak to them, and because working conditions did not cater for personal emergencies.
The rest of the company’s 144 workers still on the job have been served with termination notices as the company has lost its business.
Director Narayan Prashad said that the company is not closing down, but is rather preparing for a turnaround that could see the rehiring of some of the workers who were laid off.
Further, Prashad said that the company could end up operating at maximum, which is, hiring an estimated 600 workers at any one time.
NPIC said that it has been forced to terminate the services of its current employees because it lost its European business on which its operations were solely based.
The company said that the contract should have lasted another two years, but it was advised last November that it’s European customer that it was affected by the “current economic environment”.
According to the call centre, the customer had indicated that it was forced to increase “efficiency and with the advancements in their software, would be reducing the number of agents on their campaigns and relying on their software to perform a larger percentage of their service needs”. As a result, NPIC said, the customer notified NPIC that further advancements in their technology would eliminate the need for human support and as such they would discontinue the contract with NPIC by the end of March. The word was that the cost was less to use the software than to use manpower.
NPIC said management immediately informed its staff employed on this project of the status so they may seek alternate employment and provided appropriate severance packages to agents impacted.
“We were given short notice and yes one of our contracts has come to an abrupt end. This was not in our control; however we are by no means closing down the business. We have numerous customer accounts and multiple projects we are testing, which we expect to add seats on in the near future and hope to move across staff as these projects ramp in the coming months.”
Yesterday, Prashad told Kaieteur News that the company is looking at attracting two customers from North America.
NPIC argued that the outsourcing business is a “very competitive” one, requiring stringent performance guidelines to win new accounts and maintain business including strict adherence to scheduling and meeting client required performance and quality guidelines.
The company said that it is “very” proud of the team of professionals employed at NPIC and that the reaction to the recent layoffs has been “remarkable”, with agents working hard and delivering superior service up to their last day.
“It is the strength and pride of the professionals that we employ which drives our confidence in the success and growth of the new projects we are embarking on,” said Prashad.
When Kaieteur News spoke with some workers, they put conditions of work at 50/50 and say the attitude of managers could improve.
Regarding claims of low wages, Prashad said the average worker would take home an estimated $50,000 and could take home much more if they qualify for either or all of three bonus packages on a monthly basis. One of the bonus packages adds up to $15,000, Operations Manager Arti Yakub said.
Regarding sanitary conditions, workers at the center blamed this on staff.
Call Centre agents are first called in to do a two-week training and are paid $215 an hour and if they are hired are paid $240 an hour.
For those working the night shift, they receive $50 extra an hour, and are given a transportation allowance of $200.
Reacting to claims made against managers, Prashad said that call centres are competitive operations, and if managers are firm, they have to be, as sometimes call center agents come up with “flimsy” excuses when they do not report for duty.
He said the call center requires a solid turnout in order to ensure it could meet the demands of its overseas customers.
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