Call-centre work: specific characteristics and the challenges of work organisation

In: Transfer: the European review of labour and research ; quarterly review of the European Trade Union Institute, Band 8, Heft 3, S. 456-466

Abstract

In recent years call-centres have been, in many countries, one of the fastest growing areas of employment. The services provided by them are as diverse as their corporate form: call-centres may form part of existing companies but they may equally well be new independent serviceproviders. It is frequently asserted that they are invariably a modern form of sweatshop or dark satanic mill, with low pay, poor working conditions and highly flexible working time. In this contribution the characteristics of call-centre work are analysed more closely and it is shown that the quality of jobs is in practice extremely variable. In spite of difficult general conditions, a number of starting points for a better organisation of work and collectively agreed regulation exist.