There are many sources of information on call centres. Here are a few:
- The ASU has a
webpage on Call Centres, with resources, including the
Good Practice Guide for OHS in Call Centres, developed by the ASU with funding from WorkSafe Victoria, which can also be downloaded on the right hand side of this page.The ASU also has a new tool on their site, the
Stress-o-meter. The union undertook a national survey into the issues affecting call centre workers in Australia. The overwhelming single issue affecting call centre workers identified in the survey is stress - the causes and contributions vary from workplace to workplace.
ASU media release [pdf] Full 2009 Survey Report [pdf] or 2009 Survey Report Summary [pdf]
- ACTU Guidelines for Screen Based Work (also at the bottom of this page) which covers all aspects of working with computers.
- Officewise - A guide to health and safety in the office This is a government produced manual which provides information on a wide range of office related issues.
- Queensland Code of Practice for Call Centres [ ]
- Western Australian Code of Practice for Occupational Health and Safety in Call Centres (2005) [pdf]
- An Industry Guideline from the Australian Communications Industry Forum:
Acoustic Safety for Telephone Equipment [pdf]
- Publications from the UK's HSE:
- A lengthy document with loads of very useful information and advice: Advice regarding call centre working practices (2001) [pdf]
- Psychosocial risk factors in call centres: An evaluation of work design and well-being - a research report on whether working as a call handler is more stressful than working in other jobs, what makes working in call centres stressful and what can be done to reduce the psychosocial risks associated with working as a call handler.
- A statement and new Acoustic Shock guidelines June 2004 [ pdf] and a later revision [pdf].
- Also on Acoustic Shock, information from a UK website,
CallCentreHelper.com
- For information on toilet breaks, go to this page on the UK's TUC web magazine Hazards website.
- The UK Communications Workers Union webpage on noise, including items on Acoustic Shock and Call Centres.
- Call centre work – characteristics, physical and psychosocial exposures, and health related outcomes; Kerstin Norman; (Sweden 2005).[abstract or full document]. This is a PhD thesis that found a higher proportion of call centre workers reported musculoskeletal symptoms compared to other professional computer users. The paper also looks at what call centres are and examined the deficiencies of call centre workplaces.
- Musculo-skeletal injuries and the telecommunications industry - A new guide targeting hazards in the telecommunications sector has been produced in a joint project by European unions and employers. The guide and accompanying research, based on a survey of 500,000 of the 1.3 million people employed by network operators within the EU, is available online.
- Working voices: An epidemiological study of occupational voice demands and their impact on the call centre industry, IOSH, 2012 [pdf].
- Hazards voice loss webpages
Unions with coverage of call centres:
Contact your union for more information. Unions which have coverage of call centres include:
- Australian Services Union (ASU) (Victorian Private sector branch)
-
Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU/SPSF)
State Public Services Federation Victoria
- Community and Public Section Union (CPSU PSU Group)
- Communication, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) - Communications Division and their Telecommunications and Services branch,
- Finance Sector Union (FSU), and
- National Union of Workers (NUW), and
- Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) have coverage of call centres in the entertainment area (eg Ticketmaster7 and Ticketek)