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Call Centre Pay - Briefing No 71

Introduction

Incomes Data Services (IDS) has recently published its seventh annual report on call centres in the UK. The report is the most comprehensive source of information that has been made available on the UK call centre industry to date. The report includes estimates of the size of the UK call centre industry, details of salaries for call centre operators as well as covering recruitment and retention issues and staff turnover and absence levels across the industry.

The report itself is based on an IDS survey of call centre managers responsible for managing over 300 centres with a combined workforce of 112,000. The main sectors represented in the survey were financial services, public sector and not-for-profit organisations. The report is presented in 4 main sections, these being overview of trends, recruitment and retention, analysis of pay and terms and conditions. Summaries of the important points from each section are given below.

Overview of trends

A recent Sector Skills Council survey has estimated that approximately 867,000 people in the UK were employed in the call centre industry in the first quarter of 2003. This figure represents a three-fold increase on the numbers who were employed in UK call centres in 1998. This rise is mainly due to the expansion of existing operations and continued growth into new sectors such as telecoms and, more recently, public services.

The report highlights that the use of call centres to deliver public services is expanding significantly, and that there is a growing trend for organisations to outsource their call centre services. The report states that the UK call centre industry will continue to expand, albeit at a slower rate than in previous years and that the number of call centres in the UK will number 6,900 by 2007 (an increase of 21% on number of UK call centres in 2001).

Trade union representation in call centres

Call centres without a recognised trade union now form a minority of the industry according to the results of the IDS survey. More than half of the organisations surveyed negotiated pay, terms and conditions with a trade union while more than two-thirds of all call centre workers are now covered by a collective agreement.

According to the IDS report 55% of those organisations taking part in the survey recognise a trade union for formal negotiations over pay and conditions. This is the highest proportion of respondents with trade union recognition since IDS began recording this information in call centre surveys in 1999. In 1999 only 44 % of organisations in the call centre industry recognised a trade union.

Within the call centre sector the spread of trade union recognition remains uneven. Most trade union members are clustered into three distinct industrial sectors: financial services, privatised utilities and the public sector. Union recognition is most prevalent in the public sector and UNISON is one of the main unions representing call centre public sector workers. Companies in the outsourced services sector were least likely to bargain over pay and conditions with unions, with only one-in-three having a recognition agreement.

Recruitment, Retention, Turnover and Absences

The IDS survey found that 36% of the organisations surveyed had problems with staff recruitment. Unsurprisingly, the survey also highlighted the strong link between recruitment and retention. Over 80% of those organisations that reported problems with recruitment also declared that they had experienced problems retaining staff.

The survey also showed that Scotland had the second highest proportion of respondents within the UK reporting retention problems. Over 60% of those Scottish based call centre organisations reported problems with retaining staff with nearly all retention problems being experienced in either Glasgow or Edinburgh.

Average staff turnover across all the organisations in the survey was 25%, an increase in the figures for 2002. Average staff turnover was highest in the leisure and transport sector (39%) and in outsourced services (29%). The lowest average staff turnover figure was lowest in the public/not-for-profit sector (15%). The survey also found that organisations do not recognise a trade union were more likely to have a higher rate of staff turnover compared to those that do negotiate terms and conditions with a union.

According to the IDS survey, call centre workers took an average of almost three weeks off work due to sickness in the 12 months between June 2002 and June 2003. The average rate of absences amongst the organisations that provided this information in their survey responses was 6.2%. This is much higher than the average level of absence recorded by both the CIPD and the CBI for the whole of the UK economy.

Analysis of pay

The survey found that the average starting salary for a customer adviser was £12,800, an increase of 3.2% on last year’s survey. The typical (median) pay range for a customer service adviser starts at £12,200, has a mid-point of £14,000 and a maximum of £16,000.

Pay differences between sectors

The variation between different sectors in the average salaries for customer advisers is more significant than regional pay differences. There was a gap of £2,700 between the average mid-point salaries in the lowest and highest paying sectors. The lowest salaries on average were found in call centres in the retail sector. The average salary there was £12, 600, which was 13% lower than the average for all sectors. Other sectors with lower than average salaries were leisure & transport (£12,700) and outsourced services ((£13,400).

The highest average customer adviser salary was in the public and not-for-profit sector, at £15,300. This was 6% higher than the overall average. This is partly a consequence of the broader range of kills often required for many of the call centre roles in the public sector, for example staff in many local authority call centres need to be able to answer enquiries and give advice on a wide range of council services.

Call centres in the telecoms and utilities sectors and in financial services also had higher than average salaries, at £15,000 and £14,600 respectively. Interestingly, the survey also highlighted that the sectors with the lowest average pay levels for advisers were also those with the highest turnover of staff. The retail, leisure, transport and outsourced sectors all had higher than average staff turnover rates. These same sectors also had lower than average pay rates.

Action for Branches:

This briefing is primarily for bargaining purposes, however if branches wish they can access the full report from the P& I Team at West Campbell Street. Branches should use the report to inform staff and activists who are engaged in representing and bargaining on behalf of UNISON members who work in the call centre industry.

Further Information:

Call centre focus http://www.callcentre.co.uk/

TUC ‘Its your call’ campaign http://www.tuc.org.uk/theme/index.cfm?theme=yourcall

Call Centre Association http://www.cca.org.uk

‘Raising the Standard’ - UNISON Scotland’s charter for Scotland’s call centres www.unisonscotland.org.uk/briefings/cccharter.html

Whilst UNISON does not support the findings of this report, branches should nonetheless be aware of the following Scottish Executive guidance

Call Centres in the Scottish Public Sector http://www.scotland.gov.uk/government/c21g/Call_centre_c21g.pdf

Further Reading:

‘Holding the Line – UNISON’s Guide to Making Call Centres a Better Place to Work - available from the UK website

Contacts list:

Dave Watson - d.watson@unison.co.uk

@ The P&I Team
14 West Campbell St
Glasgow G26RX
Tel 0870 7777 006
Fax 0141-307 2572

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Further Information

Call centre focus http://www.callcentre.co.uk/

TUC ‘Its your call’ campaign http://www.tuc.org.uk/theme/
index.cfm?theme=yourcall

Call Centre Association http://www.cca.org.uk

‘Raising the Standard’ - UNISON Scotland’s charter for Scotland’s call centres www.unisonscotland.org.uk/
briefings/cccharter.html

Whilst UNISON does not support the findings of this report, branches should nonetheless be aware of the following Scottish Executive guidance

Call Centres in the Scottish Public Sector http://www.scotland.gov.uk/
government/c21g/Call_centre_c21g.pdf

 

Contacts list:

Dave Watson -
d.watson@unison.co.uk

@ The P&I Team
14 West Campbell St
Glasgow G26RX
Tel 0870 7777 006
Fax 0141-307 2572