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Article: Podium: Are call centres the new sweatshops? From a speech by a research associate at the University of Newcastle to the Royal Geographical Society
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- January 14, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1999 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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CALL CENTRES are offices dedicated to delivering services to
customers over the telephone. Call centres are used across a range
of sectors, including financial services, travel and transport,
information technology, marketing and retail. Call-centre staff, or
"agents", typically spend their working hours seated at their desks
in constant contact with customers, making or receiving telephone
calls and processing information.
Europe has seen a huge growth in these call centres over the last
10 years. One study has claimed that at the end of 1997 there were
as many as 3,560 call centres in the UK alone, employing a total of
approximately 163,000 staff. This growth looks likely to continue ...