Managing director of business process outsourcing company Affiliated Computers Services (ACS) e-Services Patrick Casserly, is making a concerted effort to encourage and foster greater productivity and time management among his workers.

Responding to media reports that workers at the company were punitively docked substantial sums for tardiness, Casserly sought to explain his side of the story.

Speaking with Caribbean Business Report from Kingston, he said: “ACS e-Services operates on an Activity Based Compensation (ABC) basis. This sees workers being paid a base salary of J$5000 a week. Now the people being referred to in that article only number sixty-five and in fact were given an incentive of an additional $5000 to simply turn up on time. Money was not being taken away from these workers — on the contrary, if you return from your break and lunch on time you would be paid additionally for what workers do throughout the world. In essence these workers were being paid additionally for being on time!”

According to the article in question if workers return even one minute late, the company withdrew money starting from $500 and so some people end up only going home with $2000 or $3000 for the week.

Last year the Fortune 500, US company,Affiliated Computers Services acquired e-Services for US$85 million thus gaining an additional 4000 workers and keeping Casserly on as its managing director.

Casserly started e-Services back in 2000 and in less than nine years it became the largest outsourcing centre in the region., processing over 30 million transactions annually. Headquartered in Montego Bay, E-Services expanded into Portmore and Kingston and ventured outside of Jamaica setting up operations in St. Lucia. Among its clients are Delta Airlines, Xerox and National Bank of Houston.

Workers must be on time

As far as Casserly is concerned all he is asking is that workers do their jobs and not regard the incentive bonus as an entitlement. He further added that ACS E-Services is a productive time-sensitive company working to billable efficiencies. To underscore this point he drew attention to the fact that back in September 2000 the company recorded its first US$100,000 in a month, now it does US$286,000 a day.

“People at our company have the ability to earn more by virtue of being efficient.When you include commissions, one can earn $16,000 a week. I must say that I find it difficult to swallow that people cannot turn up on time in order to earn a living.

” We were paying an incentive to turn up on time yet it was presented in the papers as if we were taking money away from our workers which is not the case. Workers earn their incentive on top of their salary. When the client picks up the phone, he expects someone to be there at the other end. It is not good enough to say, ‘sorry, I was late from lunch,’ That is not how we operate,” declared ACS E-Services’managing director.

Expanding operations

The company is expected to add a further 1000 employees this year. It is now looking to set up operations in both Antigua and the Dominican Republic.

“Have you read ‘The World Is Flat’? Well we are trying to create that model and we are now offering services in French and Spanish. People refer to us as a ‘call centre’ but they are wrong. We are an annex operation of blue chip companies. They are entrusting us with their customers and so it in imperative that we exhibit professionalism and efficiency. We cannot afford a laissez-faire approach to our business.

“When I have people turning up fifteen minutes late and the phones are ringing off the hook what impression do you think that creates? In their world you are expected to be on time and be efficient and professional. A client like Delta Airlines does not expect anything less,” said Casserly.

He went on to point out that he feels ninety-nine per cent of the company’s workers comply with prescribed edicts but that there is this one per cent who are of the view that they can do whatever they like and are threatening to undermine the company. The ACS e-Services boss made it clear that he wants ambitious workers eager and willing to boost their earnings. He pointed to Shaun Williams who started as an agent but now runs his own line of business at the company.

A sense of entitlement

The article which blasts the company’s treatment of workers further contends that workers had no one to complain to as they were contract workers without any union representation. But some were adamant that would take the matter to the Ministry of Labour.

To that, Casserly said: “I welcome the Ministry of Labour coming to view our operations and see for themselves how we pay our workers and the incentives they receive. When they look at our books , I am sure they will say, so what is the problem?”

“We treat our workers extremely well and regard them as family members. All our employees get both free health care and free life insurance, all paid for by the company. Many of our employees were very upset by that offending article and want to know where is it coming from and what is going on.”

He believes this emanates from a sense of entitlement which he is seeing more frequently and which is doing the Jamaican economy a disservice. He added that there is a small disruptive element in Jamaica who are very vocal, that skew the system, and are hell bent on being as unproductive as possible.

Casserly denied any knowledge of an internal memo confirming that workers wages were docked anywhere from a minimum of $500 to a maximum of$4000 for going over their lunch and break times. However he did offer to provide details of the wages earned by the dissident 65 workers balking against the deductions in their pay packets.