Call centres aren't sweat shops - it's official

Britain's top call centres aren't the sweat-shops some might have you believe, but conditions still need to be improved if employers want to attract more workers to the industry.

A report released today by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), claims working conditions aren't as Dickensian as is popularly believed, although things still aren't perfect.

Even though the HSE study acknowledges it did only look at the best call centres in the UK and used a voluntary questioning system, it claims there is still room for improvement and is recommending a series of guidelines for all call centre operators.

Nigel Hammond, head of compliance and training at the HSE local authority unit, said: "The call centre as a sweat shop story hasn't cropped up in our research, perhaps because the companies volunteered to participate."

He added: "You may argue we only looked at the best, but Health and Safety officers will take these guidelines and implement them across the board."

However, Hammond's claim is refuted by statistics from Netcall that indicate massive attrition rates in the call centre industry.

Netcall claims that the industry spends £305m recruiting 100,000 new staff each year while turning over 110,000 in the same period.

Don Edwards, principal call centre consultant at DMR Consulting, said: "The HSE guidelines are based on fairly short-sighted research but companies that provide better conditions tend to have low staff attrition and provide a better customer service because employees are happier."