BACOLOD City – The city government is deploying a team to check business process outsourcing (BPO) companies.
“I hope you are all strict enough to see to it that health protocols are properly followed,” Mayor Evelio Leonardia told 13 BPO representatives during a recent virtual meeting.
The team, according to the mayor, would also assess how BPOs could improve their working arrangements amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) health crisis.
Leonardia acknowledged the role of BPOs in the local economy. In previous speeches, he dubbed them the “crown jewel” of Bacolod City.
“We know how valuable you are…how much you contributed to Bacolod. You have made a very great impact to our local economy,” said Leonardia.
Almost all BPO firms in the city, particularly those with over 1,000 employees, have adopted a 50-percent to 80-percent work-from-home arrangement.
Those with only 80 to 90 employees have not adopted a work-from-home arrangement but are observing a one-seat-apart workplace set-up instead.
During the meeting, BPO representatives said they have been conducting regular enhanced onsite disinfection and also have physicians and nurses on-duty.
To recall, a call center employee succumbed to COVID-19 while another was also infected by the virus.
This led Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, chair of Bacolod City Inter-Agency Task Force against COVID-19, to urged residents not to discriminate against call center workers.
“With the recent COVID-19 case in one of the BPO firms here in the city, the task force appeals to the public to stop stigmatizing or discriminating against call center agents,” he said. (With a report from PNA/PN)
