KINGSTON, Jamaica — Former Business Process Industry Association of Jamaica president, Gloria Henry, has challenged claims circulating in the media that some call centre operators in Jamaica are paying workers as little as $200 per hour.

According to Henry, the claim “is not consistent with the compensation structures of compliant established BPOs (business process outsourcing) that operate under the Jamaica Special Economic Zone Act or the Companies Act of Jamaica or the National Labour Regulations in Jamaica that is governed by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.”

She was addressing the issue during the official launch of the Portmore Informatics Park Incubator and Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) Linkages event last Wednesday.

Henry noted that legitimate operators in the sector must adhere to statutory wage requirements, including contributions to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and other employment standards.

“BPOs know and the tier one, tier two and even tier three operators know and must adhere to the statutory wage requirements for NIS contributions and employment standards,” she said.

She said wages in the formal BPO sector are generally structured above the statutory minimum and are typically paid as fixed hourly wages or salaries.

“So the average ranges is from $400 to about $650 for base statutory, base entry level rather,” she explained, adding that workers may also benefit from attendance incentives, performance-based commissions and overtime premiums, as well as employee and employer contributions.

Henry stressed that any verified breaches should be formally investigated.

“And we say that categorically, bring the pay slips to the secretariat, which is based at 1 Mangrove Way, in Montego Bay, email them to the president at jsa.org, because that would be half of the national minimum wage,” she said.

“And if that is out there, we, as a country, must call out that perpetrator. I say categorically that the association would not condone any such breach,” she added.

She cautioned, however, that claims should not be generalised across the industry, which employs thousands of people.

Instead, she suggested that the national conversation should focus more on productivity and competitiveness within the global BPO industry.

“In global BPO, in that space there, is benchmarking that takes place. They look at average handle time, first call resolution, adherence rates, quality assurance, of course revenue per agent, absenteeism, and absenteeism levels, sales conversion among many other things,” she said.

Henry noted that Jamaica remains competitive in several service areas, including customer experience and accent neutrality, but acknowledged challenges in some transactional operations, noting that lower productivity per agent can sometimes lead supervisors and managers to intensify performance management.

“When productivity per agent is lower, it’s very possible that supervisors and managers may intensify performance management, and that within itself can be a challenge.”

She explained that while meeting service level agreements and targets can create workplace pressure, it should not automatically be equated with exploitation.

“Agreements, SLAs (service level agreements), sometimes people push to meet their targets. And in doing so, as I said, it can create challenges that can be deemed as workplace pressure… But it’s not synonymous with exploitation or harsh environment.”

Henry added that Jamaica’s BPO sector must continue evolving as it faces global competition, rising labour costs and technological disruption.

“We have to move up the value chain. We have to create higher-paying roles in analytics and compliance and FinTech and digital services. We have to start building out AI (artificial intelligence) labs in Jamaica,” she said.

Henry also highlighted the sector’s role in generating employment and export earnings, noting that it helped sustain economic activity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Looking ahead, she argued that the industry must focus on transformation and sustainable growth.

“We must not let challenges distract or detract us from our collective goals and dreams,” she stated.