Bullying culture in the call centre

Union claims of bullying culture in the call centre 

Former employees of Sydney contact centre, Contact Centres Australia alleged that they are underpaid and that there is a bullying culture in the call centre including intimidation and harassment.

Alexandra Batorowicz worked at Contact Centres Australia for more than a year before being instantly dismissed after mentioning illicit substances while talking privately to a co-worker about a music festival.

Another former employee Aniruddah Shinde, says there is a lot of unfair treatment, in which selected employees are given an easier list of phone numbers to earn a commission.

“If they liked you, they put you on a list where you’d make more sales. ‘If they didn’t like you, it was a lot harder to make money.”

The Union organiser Jafar Kazmi the bullying culture in the call centre often sees employees berated in front of colleagues and confronted by aggressive managers.

Benjamin Crabbe, Director of Contact Centres Australia denies that workers’ conversations are recorded, saying it is not possible to do, and video camera’s around the office are purely for security. ”

We are not in a position to provide any comments other than that CCA completely denies that it pays its employees less than their award entitlements. ‘We are not aware of any disputation with employees currently employed by CCA and there are no outstanding claims by ex-employees of CCA. – Benjamin Crabbe

In 2016, Contact Centres Australia clients included:

• NSW Rural Fire Service Association
• Wheelchair Sports NSW
• The Kids’ Cancer project
• State Emergency Service Volunteers Association
• FBi Radio
• City of Sydney Council

Contact Centres Australia now operate under their new brand, OneContact making the change in 2016.

With staff retention a key issue for most call centres, there really is little value for call centre employers to give their employees a hard time.

In fact, happy call centre workers are far more productive and provide a better customer experience.

So it makes commercial sense to look after them.

Recommended reading: The mental cost of call centre work

Find a list of suppliers who specialise in providing health and wellbeing products and services for contact centres in our CX Directory > as well as contact centre outsourcers.