Higher graveyard shift pay for BPO workers sought

MANILA, Philippines – A bill has been filed in the House of Representatives seeking higher graveyard shift pay for business process outsourcing (BPO) employees.

Under House Bill 4414, graveyard shift pay is proposed to be increased from 10 percent to 25 percent of the basic salary of BPO workers working from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

The bill’s author, Maguindanao 2nd Distrtic Rep. Zajid Mangudadatu, said BPO employees should be properly compensated for the risks they are exposed to during the graveyard shift.

"BPO employees are often exposed to stress because they take calls of agitated or angry customers. They likewise make calls to customers of their companies for purposes of addressing concerns, making sales or other matters that require a lot of activity, resulting in undue stress. In addition, most BPOs operate during the night and this adds to the employees' exposure to health hazard," he said.

Mangudadatu said he believes that BPO firms can afford the additional graveyard shift pay for their employees, noting that the proposed increase is “just a small price to pay.”

"It should be highlighted that BPOs are owned and operated by foreigners and are in Philippine Economic Zone Authority-accredited locations. This proposed increase is just a small price to pay for owners and operators of BPOs, some of whom enjoy tax benefits for being located in PEZA-accredited locations," he said.

The bill also proposes that the additional pay shall be applied in the entire BPO industry, including those that are located in information technology centers or accredited by PEZA.

If approved, violators will be subject to a 30-day suspension of business permit and a fine of P250,000.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Wanted: 300,000 agents to expand insurance business

MANILA - The key to expanding insurance coverage in the Philippines is for the industry to jack up the number of agents from the current 30,000 to 300,000 in eight years, Manulife Financial Corp. said on Friday.

Indren Naidoo, Manulife Philippines president and chief executive, said Indonesia only had 1.5 million people who could afford insurance five years ago. This has surged to 50 million now and in the next five years is projected to grow to 150 million. Indonesia's case may not be that far from the Philippines, with the proliferation of business process outsourcing firms employing young and mobile Filipinos who could afford an insurance policy.

"A lot of our population is under 25 years old. We have the advantage of many young men and women working in this industry. I have no doubt that this emerging middle class would come up," Naidoo told reporters during a briefing.

In Manulife's case, the company has grown its insurance premiums by 20 to 25 percent in the last two years.

Naidoo said Indonesia was able to expand its insurance coverage by having half a million agents while the Philippines only has 30,000. Of the total, 3,500 of these are Manulife agents.

"We don't have the foot soldiers that is out there teaching people, educating people of the benefits, transforming the mindset that this is not an expense but rather an investment for your future," he said.

Part of the problem is young people, especially university graduates, are not keen on being insurance advisers, especially with the industry likened to the beleagured pre-need business.

The Philippine Life Insurance Association, Naidoo said, is now trying to entice young professionals, as well as housewives and retirees, to take up a career in the insurance industry as financial advisors.

"We have around seven percent unemployment at the moment and you can knock it off to five percent with 300,000 people," he said.

The 300,000 agents would translate to P1 trillion in premiums, from the current P100 billion.

To achieve this, Manulife has done the branding and advertising to attract potential agents into its fold. The company also has career orientation programs every week held in key provincial cities like Baguio, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, and Davao.

On Friday, Manulife rang the opening bell at the Philippine Stock Exchange to celebrate the company's 125th anniversary. This will be followed by a weeklong series of market opening ceremonies worldwide.

Manulife is the biggest PSE-listed company by market capitalization, and trades as MFC on the Toronto Stock Exchange, New York Stock Exchange, the PSE and under '945' on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.

The company has been operating in the Philippines since 1907 and it now has Manulife Chinabank Life Assurance Corp., a bancassurance joint venture company of Henry Sy-led China Banking Corp. and The Manufacturers Life Insurance Co. Phils. Inc.

It also has the Manulife Business Processing Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Manulife Financial, which provides back office, accounting, finance and information technology services to other Manulife subsidiaries worldwide. Its Quezon City office houses 2,000 BPO workers who service North American and Asian operations.

source: interaksyon.com

Call center agents' health in near crisis - DOH

MANILA, Philippines -- Call center agents working graveyard shifts face serious health problems that are nearing crisis levels, a representative from the Department of Health (DOH) said.

Dr. Anthony Leachon, a consultant of the DOH on non-communicable diseases (NCD), said the lifestyle-related illnesses such as stroke, heart disease and cancer have risen at an alarming rate among call center workers.

“Apart from HIV, the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Ateneo Univeristy Clinical Psychology department were surprised to see that there is a surge right now of epidemic proportions of call center agents having NCDs,” Leachon said.

The cardiologist said that he, the ILO and the Ateneo will undertake research on this subject since the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry is a billion-dollar business for the country.

“If your call center workers are sick—you have an economic workforce now in a health crisis,” he said.

The industry sees a high incidence of NCDs among BPO workers at 60 percent, and Leachon said a health crisis is in the offing if this goes up to 70 or 80 percent.

Healthcare workers blame smoking for the rise of NCDs to 45 percent among BPO workers and the entire population.

According to the 2008 National Nutrition and Health Survey (NNHS), smoking does not just cause cancer and lung diseases but is also the number one cause of strokes and heart attacks. Smoking is estimated to have caused 50,000 deaths a year and caused more strokes and heart attacks than diabetes, hypertension, obesity and high cholesterol.

Graveyard shifts

Because of the shifts in their working hours, BPO workers have a propensity to smoke and ruin their diet while foregoing physical exercise.

The DOH said smoking incidence is directly proportional to the rise in the number of BPO workers, especially those who are working graveyard shifts. Leachon said these young workers have the means or the dispensable income to buy cigarettes.

“It’s dangerous, it’s a double whammy. When you are awake and on the Internet, it’s more opportunity for you to smoke and eat,” Leachon said.

He has analyzed the data on workers assigned to graveyard shifts and found that these employees have higher incidence of lifestyle diseases.

NCDs among the younger set

Leachon said he sees around 30 patients a day, with 30 to 40 percent of whom considered young.

“Before, we used to believe that the disease in males would start at 45 years old and 55 years old for females post-menopausal. I see males right now at age 30 to 35 years old sick with non-communicable diseases and females 35 to 40 years old,” the cardiologist said.

According to Dr. Tony Dans of the University of the Philippines College of Medicine, NCDs are not the illnesses of the old since it is lifestyle-related.

However, there is a misconception that lifestyle is not a choice but rather is shaped by the environment.

“If healthy food is expensive, people will eat unhealthy. If there are no places to exercise, people will not exercise. If tobacco is cheap, people will smoke,” Dans said.

Because of this, doctors and the DOH are supporting the hike in so-called sin taxes pending before the House of Representatives.

DOH claimed that by making the cigarettes more expensive, the incidence of smoking among the poor—who, according to NNHS, smoke more than the rich—would be curbed.

source: interaksyon.com