DISSERTAÇÃO DE MESTRADO BILGE ÇOBAN The Realm of Call Centers and Trade Unions

77 Pages·2016·0.8 MB·English

UNIVERSIDADE ESTADUAL DE CAMPINAS
INSTITUTO DE ECONOMIA

BILGE ÇOBAN

The Realm of Call Centers and Trade Unions:
A literature Review

Call centers e sindicatos: uma revisão da literatura

CAMPINAS
2015
UNIVERSIDADE ESTADUAL DE CAMPINAS
INSTITUTO DE ECONOMIA

BILGE ÇOBAN

The Realm of Call Centers and Trade Unions:
A literature Review

Call centers e sindicatos: uma revisão da literatura

Prof. Dr. Hugo Miguel Oliveira Rodrigues Dias – Orientador

Dissertação apresentada ao Instituto de Economia da Universidade Estadual de Campinas
como parte dos requisitos exigidos para a obtenção do título de Mestra em Desenvolvimento
Econômico, na área de Economia Social e do Trabalho.

Dissertation presented to the Institute of Economics of the University of Campinas in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Economic Develop, in the area of
Social Economy and Labour Area.

ESTE EXEMPLAR CORRESPONDE À VERSÃO
FINAL DA DISSERTAÇÃO DEFENDIDA PELA
ALUNA BILGE ÇOBAN E ORIENTADA PELO
PROF. DR. HUGO MIGUEL OLIVEIRA RODRIGUES
DIAS.

CAMPINAS
2015

DISSERTAÇÃO DE MESTRADO

BILGE ÇOBAN

The Realm of Call Centers and Trade Unions:
A literature Review

Call centers e sindicatos: uma revisão da literatura

Defendida em 27/11/2015

COMISSÃO JULGADORA
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, I would like to respectfully thank my adviser Prof. Dr. Hugo Dias for his
invaluable support and advice and seemingly unending patience with me. I would like to
respectfully thank also Ruy Braga for his guidance and encouragement to choose this subject.
I would like to express my appreciation and special thanks to Prof. Dr. Carlos Salas
Peaz and Prof. Dr. Jose Dari Krein for guiding me with all their knowledge and wisdom.
I am intensely grateful to my colleagues, Kartika Sardjana, Anna Lopez, Ezgi
Bagdadioğlu, Cheng Li, Mario Jacobs, Nicolo Giangrande, and Muzaffer Ekin Şişli for their
invaluable friendship and encouragement to finalize the study successfully.
Some of my friends, Clair Siobhan Ruppert, Bülend Karadağ, Patricia Costa and
Rairis Martin deserve special thanks not only for their kind support of this study but also
sharing the burdens of my life in Brazil. My gratitude for their encouraging friendship is
beyond any expression. My special thanks to Martha Mary Ruppert for her generous helps to
my study.
I would like to thank to the professors, lecturers and my colleagues at CESIT, the
Global Labour University at the University of Campinas, and the CUT (Central Unica dos
Trabalhaldores) for all their support.
Finally, I am deeply grateful to my family for their invaluable support, patience and
never ending encouragement not only during my stay in Brazil, but at all stages of my life.
ABSTRACT

This dissertation focused on the call center industry and its growing importance in
developed and developing countries in respect to unionization effort in that area. Call centers
are mostly located in developing countries. And it may be favorable for these countries
because it might bring employment, but sure that it is not favorable for workers in respect to
working conditions. Unfortunately, the sector predominantly offers low-skilled, low-waged
and highly flexible jobs in terms of working hours and term of contracts.
As many countries around the globe provide call center service, type of the call center
work, workforce, and quality of work life issues, and unionization of call center workers have
become growing importance and growing interest both in the academic and union world. The
objective of this study was to find out the interest on the activities of union organizing in the
relevant academic literature. In this context this study attempted to examine the expansion of
call centers, features of call center work and workforce as well as geographical distribution of
centers and unionization in call centers through reviewing relevant academic literature.

Keywords: call center, union crisis, trade union revitalization, call center literature.
RESUMO
Esta dissertação foca a indústria de call center e sua crescente importância nos países
desenvolvidos e em desenvolvimento no que diz respeito ao esforço de sindicalização nessa
área. Call centers estão localizados principalmente em países em desenvolvimento. E isso
pode ser favorável para estes países, pois pode trazer emprego, mas não é certo que seja
favorável para os trabalhadores no que diz respeito às condições de trabalho. Infelizmente, o
setor oferece predominantemente empregos de baixa qualificação, baixos salários e altamente
flexíveis em termos de horas de trabalho e duração dos contratos.
Como muitos países ao redor do mundo oferecem serviço de call center, o tipo de
trabalho de call center, a força de trabalho e a qualidade de vida no trabalho e sindicalização
dos trabalhadores de call center têm se tornado cada vez mais importantes e gerado interesse
crescente, tanto no mundo acadêmico como sindical. O objetivo deste estudo foi o de avaliar o
interesse sobre as atividades de organização sindical na literatura acadêmica relevante. Neste
contexto, este estudo procurou analisar a expansão dos call centers, características do trabalho
de call center e força de trabalho, bem como a sua distribuição geográfica e níveis de
sindicalização.

Palavras-chave: call center, crise sindical, revitalização sindical, literatura sobre call centers.
LIST OF TABLES

Table 1:Union density in selected OECD Countries (1960-2010) ........................................... 40
Table 2 : The main reasons why call center workers dislike their jobs .................................... 54

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 The service sector accounts for most of the variation in employment rates across
OECD countries .......................................................................................................................... 7
Figure 2: Union Membership Rates Average in OECD Countries(1960-2010) ...................... 39
LIST OF ABBREVIATONS

ABT Brazilian Association of Teleservices
ACD Automatic Call Distributer
AFL-CIO American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations
ASU Australian Services Union
BPO Business Process Outsourcing
CEPU Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union, Australia
CGIL Italian General Confederation of Labour
CME Coordinated Market Economy
CPSU Community and Public Sector Union
CISL Italian Confederation of Trade Unions
CWU Telecoms Sector Union, United Kingdom
ÇSGB Turkish Ministry of Labour and Social Security
ECB European Central Bank
EU European Union
FSU Finance Sector Union, Australia
GDP Gross Domestic Product
IMF International Monetary Fund
LME Liberal Market Economy
MEAA Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, Australia
NUW National Unions of Workers, Australia
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Sintratel Sindicato dos Trabalhadores em Telemarketing
TUC Trades Union Congress
UIL Italian Labour Union
UK United Kingdom
UNI UNI Global Union
UNIFI Finance Sector Union, United Kingdom
UNISON UNISON The Public Service Union
UNITES Union of Information Technology Enabled Services Professionals, India
USA United States of America
US United States
WB World Bank