Nunzia had warned me: “Madam, we’re going on strike on 11 November. They’re cutting jobs here; they say there’s artificial intelligence that can do our jobs.” Nunzia is calling from Puglia; she’s an ‘inbound’ call centre agent, as she told me in her irresistible Puglian accent. In other words, she’s part of the team that doesn’t try to sell me a new mobile contract, but who I call when the internet’s playing up or the electricity at home’s ‘fluttering’.
It’s polite and patient, just like Sabrina, Maria and Letizia – almost all women – who answer the thousands of calls from consumers pressing 1, 2 or 3 to speak to a ‘consultant’.
The figures speak for themselves: 65 per cent of respondents are women, the majority of whom work in the South and on the islands, with peaks also in Piedmont and Lombardy; they are aged between 20 and 45, well-educated and some with a degree under their belt. “The pay is what it is,” Nunzia told me, “but I’ve been here for 15 years. And in Bari, I don’t have much chance of finding another job.”
I read the press release from Cgil (trade union confederation), Cisl and Uil regarding the strike on Wednesday 11 November: “Thirty per cent of the 43,000 employees in outsourced call centres, on telecommunications contracts, are about to become structurally redundant due to the widespread introduction of automation processes. Large client companies (both private and publicly owned) tend to treat customer service as a mere flexible cost item to be cut.’
Outsourcing did the rest: in ten years, employment has literally halved. Many of the rules guaranteeing compliance with employment contracts during transfers from one company to another have also been bypassed. This means no pay rises based on seniority, no protection of holiday and sick leave entitlements, and no imposition of part-time work or forced transfers.
Whilst I was thinking about Nunzia on strike, I received a call from a bot which, in a tinny little voice, tried to foist a water-descaling system on me. I hung up, feeling disheartened.