Why is Colombia’s Labor Ministry Cracking Down on Call Centers?

Things are about to get heated for call center operators in Colombia.

Colombia’s Labor Minister Gloria Inés Ramírez has explicitly put call centers on notice, announcing inspections meant to scrutinize the facilities.

“We’re coming after call centers now,” Minister Ramírez told the Colombian press at a conference in mid May of this year. “We’ll be inspecting call center facilities from which we’ve received a considerable quantity of complaints from employees.”

Ramírez did not specify which companies or facilities will be inspected. NSAM reached out to the Labor Ministry asking for the names of the companies under investigation. We have yet to receive a response.

In Colombia –and in many other Latin American countries–, call centers are one of the main sources of employment for the young and inexperienced, as well as for single mothers and other women who find themselves in tight financial positions, and for people who have traditionally been marginalized by society. Minister Ramírez made explicit mention of this.

Although President Gustavo Petro’s administration has paid little mind to the CX/BPO industry –most of his energies were directed to mining and big oil–, the profile of call center workers fits right into his rhetoric and policies, which can be characterized as populist. Besides, according to Minister Ramírez, her office has received enough complaints to warrant a thorough investigation. 

Such complaints include –but aren’t limited to– unpaid social security and very limited time for pauses, including bathroom breaks. The Ministry has classified all of these complaints under the category of “harassment in the office”.

Saw it coming

This is not the first time Colombia’s labor authorities clash with call center operators. One of the bigger stories of the past couple years involved Teleperformance and a probe by the country’s Labor Ministry.

Teleperformance fell in hot water in late 2022 after TIME Magazine published an exposé about the psychological pressures and poor conditions in which TikTok moderators had to work. The moderators quoted in the piece were Colombian nationals employed by Teleperformance.

It was later revealed that the Ministry had received nearly 200 complaints from current and former TP employees. The complaints included unpaid severance, working hours that stretched for too long, incomplete wages, unpaid social security and instances of harassment in the office.  

The Ministry told NSAM at the time that they were unable to find any proof of the allegations made in TIME’s piece. However, in February of 2023, the Ministry was the intermediary in a deal between Teleperformance and Utraclaro, Colombia’s biggest union for ITC workers. The company committed then to implement “proper channels to attend workers’ complaints.” Two months later, a similar deal was struck between both parties, this time brokered by international union federation UNI Global.

No mention of Teleperformance was made by Minister Ramírez when speaking of the coming inspections. Local press outlets have, however, underscored recent scandals and probes into the company.

What to expect

We have our doubts on whether the Labor Ministry’s campaign will lead into any substantial consequences for Colombia’s BPO industry. 

Call centers and other BPO facilities have indeed been subjected to relatively extraordinary levels of scrutiny over the past couple years, and not only In Colombia. Alleged labor abuses in one of Atento’s Mexican facilities have led to a trade controversy with the US. BPO workers in Kenya launched a lawsuit against Facebook over alleged psychological damage caused to moderators. In several places there have been signs of an “awakening” among workers, local authorities, media and the general public when it comes to labor abuses in that segment of the services sector.

This seems conveniently aligned with the rise of compliance culture beyond the biggest players in the global market, as well as a wider sense of corporate social responsibility in business; one that includes labor rights and the socio-economic impact companies might have on the communities from which they source their human capital.

However, Colombia’s Labor Ministry –under President Petro, at least– has no history of consequential action against call center operators in the country. There will be scandals for sure, but we doubt they will amount to anything official, particularly for the biggest players in the market, which seem to have their house in order, at least in appearance. 

We see consequences developing mainly from well-publicized scandals, and those can come from either the Ministry’s probes or media investigations. Such cases might lead to losses in market value, pressures from stakeholders and actual decisions by company leadership. Following the TikTok debacle, Teleperformance suspended –albeit briefly– its content moderation services. Majorel laid off hundreds of workers in response to the Facebook lawsuit in Kenya.

In short: call center operators in Colombia will have to keep their affairs in order. Not because of the Labor Ministry’s probes, but due to the fact that the world is growing more sensitive to stories of exploitation. Those stories travel fast, and they might find their way into the ears (or inboxes) of a client. And that can spell a lot of trouble for any provider of third party services.