17 April 2020

In a complaint filed with the French government...a coalition of labour unions is calling for immediate intervention to stop violations of workers’ right to a safe workplace at Teleperformance, the Paris-based outsourcing giant for clients like Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Google.

[...]

"Teleperformance's inadequate, slow response to the coronavirus crisis has put thousands of workers at risk in the time of a deadly pandemic," said Christy Hoffman, General Secretary of UNI Global Union. "These widespread problems show a disregard for workers' fundamental rights, including their health and safety, throughout the company's global management. That is why we are asking the French government to step in and help secure urgent remedies under the OECD Guidelines."

Hoffman continued, "Workers need safe jobs now, but also the guarantee of safe jobs as they return to the new normal that develops in the aftermath of this pandemic."

[...]

The unions believe these solutions are necessary first steps to address the crisis conditions found in the company's operations. Examples include:

[...]

• “Subhuman” conditions in the Philippines. Because of travel restrictions imposed by the Philippines government, workers who are unable to travel to work are required to sleep on the floor at Teleperformance facilities for the 30-day period of the curfew or stay home and receive no wage payment. Workers are not provided sleeping quarters that adequately allow for social distancing. These issues were later reported on by the Financial Times, which focused on problems in the Amazon Ring account in Cebu, where a worker described the conditions as “subhuman.”

[...]