Grove call-centre impasse…
-rubbishes claims made in media reports
– working on replacing lost international clients
THE DIRECTOR of the NPI Communications voice-to-text conversion centre is debunking claims in articles in another section of the media suggesting that the business is akin to a sweatshop and that conditions are repressive. Naryan Prashad, speaking to this newspaper during an interview and tour of the facility on Friday, said that the reports recently in another section of the media have the potential of hurting the company and possibly the prospects for the industry here.
The company, due to the loss of a major account of an overseas client, has sent home close to 100 workers, with the understanding that they would be rehired as soon as it is possible to do so. The company also denied that it is closing the business because of setbacks due to the major account loss and the displacement of so many jobs.
The establishment is located in Diamond on the East Bank of Demerara opposite the Diamond Secondary School. The loss of the jobs sparked protests by employees, some of whom aired grouses they had with the company.
“The account, which was contracted to require the service support for another two years, informed NPIC in November that the current economic environment required that they continue to increase efficiency and with the advancements in their software, would be reducing the number of agents on their campaigns and relying on their software to perform a larger percentage of their service needs,” said Prashad.
According to Prashad, NPIC’s customer notified the company that further advancements in their technology would eliminate the need for human support “and as such they would discontinue the contract with NPIC by the end of March as the cost was less to use the software than to use manpower.”
The Director said: “NPIC management immediately informed its staff employed on this project of the status so that they may seek alternative employment, and provided appropriate severance packages to agents impacted.”
During the visit to the centre, a manager at the establishment explained to this newspaper that training lasts for two weeks during which the persons are paid at a rate of $120 per hour – a stipend. “Once they successfully pass that training, we start them off at a rate of $215 per hour during the probationary period of three months after which they are assessed and their rate increased to $240 per hour.
“We have agents working in the night and once they complete shifts at 3:00 hrs or 4:00 hrs in the morning, they are being paid an additional $50 per hour along with the $240 rate. A night agent is paid a rate of $290 per hour. We also provide transportation at the rate of $200 per night for agents working after 20:00 hours. We also have buses available to drop off workers at certain locations,” she said.
“We also pay bonuses for performance. The bonus is paid in three categories – adherence, speed in converting messages and accuracy in converting messages. Combined with those three bonuses the company gives an additional $10,000 to $15,000 once they qualify,” she said.
“One of the things that has to be cleared up is that we have to pay all of the NIS and whatever taxes due. Bonuses are taxable therefore, we have to pay. Whatever the law says we have to pay we will pay,” she said.
Prashad said the investment made is over US$2 million and it is not the end of the road. He said that the company some time back purchased three acres of land from the Government for further expansion, eyeing the addition to 2,000 more workstations to the already 600 plus workstations at the Diamond location. Further, he explained that the Diamond operation could facilitate up to 1,000 jobs, working on a shift system.
“The position of NTIC now is that we have notice of termination of our contract with our client overseas. This programme will be terminated at the end of March. Nevertheless, we are testing new programmes and the centre will not be closed. We will be rehiring if not all, most of our employees,” he said.
According to Naryan, the testing period will be for six weeks. “In six weeks I will know what the status is of those programmes being tested now,” he said.
“I would want to say that all of the issues in the article are very misleading. I would invite anyone who wants to come and see the operations. We are very transparent,” he said.
“We were given short notice and yes one of our contracts has come to an abrupt end, which is not in our control. However, we are by no means closing down the business. We have numerous customer accounts and multiple projects we are testing. We expect to add seats on in the near future…,” the Director said.
According to the statement, the outsourcing business is very competitive, requiring stringent performance guidelines to win new accounts and maintain business including strict adherence to scheduling and meeting client-required performance and quality guidelines.
“We are very proud of the team of professionals we have employed at NPIC and the reaction to the recent layoffs has been remarkable, with agents working hard to deliver superior service up to their last day. It is the strength and pride of the professionals that we employ which drives our confidence in the success and growth of the new projects we are embarking on,” Prashad said.
Emphasising on the nature of the business at NPIC, Prashad said that the entity, probably the largest of its kind in Guyana, is not a call centre, since it does not do telemarketing. Instead, he said that it is better described as a voice to text conversion centre, which turns voicemail messages into text messages that the end user sees on his or her cell phone.
Prashad said the company is presently contemplating legal action against the publication, which carried the stories within which the allegations were made.