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Thousands of employees at one of the world’s largest call center companies face being monitored by webcams to check if they are eating, checking their phones or leaving their desks while working from home, The Guardian found.
In a sign of potential battles looming over remote staff surveillance after the pandemic, Teleperformance, which employs some 380,000 people in 34 countries and counts dozens of major UK companies and government departments among its clients, has told some employees that specialized webcams will be used. equipped to check for “violations” of home work.
While these will be used in part for team meetings and training, the cameras are also connected to an artificial intelligence system that will randomly scan for work rule violations during a shift. If one is detected, a still photo will be sent to a manager and stored for up to 20 days, based on documents sent to staff.
If workers need to leave their desks, for example, to have a drink, they will have to click on “break mode” in an application to explain why, for example, “get water”, to avoid being informed for a infringement.
Eating is not allowed during the shift, staff is informed. “If the system doesn’t detect any keystrokes or mouse clicks, it will show you as inactive for that particular period and your supervisor will be reported. So avoid hampering your productivity. “
A training video on the webcam system, seen by The Guardian, says that it “monitors and tracks employee behavior in real time and detects any violations of pre-established business rules, and sends real-time alerts to managers to take immediate corrective action. “
The move prompted warnings from unions and parliamentarians about the standardization of home surveillance by employers as a growing number of workers stop working in offices.
The revelations came to light after some of Teleperformance’s 10,000 UK employees were told that the cameras, including the AI-based scanning system, would be installed next month for staff to continue working from home.
When approached by The Guardian, the company said remote scans would not be used in the UK. Webcams for UK staff could not be operated remotely and would only be used for meetings and training, and for scheduled video calls when supervisors were checking desks for devices not allowed for data security reasons, such as telephones a spokesman said.
Levels of remote scrutiny would be different in other countries, he said.
Although not a household name, the France-based company is one of the world’s largest providers of outsourced telephone services, including customer assistance, telemarketing and technical support.
In Britain, his clients include the UK government health and education departments, NHS Digital, Student Loans Company, RAF and Royal Navy. The companies he works for include Vodafone, eBay, Aviva, Volkswagen, and The Guardian. There is no indication that any of them were aware of or participated in the planning of the new surveillance system.
It is understood that Teleperformance is implementing the full web camera surveillance system in other countries where it operates. The company declined to say whether any of its UK clients use staff elsewhere who could be subject to supervision.
According to the documents and video, at random times during a shift, the webcam system will scan the workspace for violations, including “no desk”, “detection of an inactive user”, “unauthorized use of cell phones “and another person in the work area.
The cameras will also be configured with facial recognition so they can detect if someone else is sitting at the desk. Employees are told: “Any violation detected by the AI triggers a real-time alert to the supervisor for further action.”
Company literature acknowledges that family or other household members cannot stay completely away from workspaces, and said managers would not take action if their presence was detected “as long as people in the background are not looking. directly to the screen or very close to it. “To avoid this, staff are asked to place their screens facing the wall.
Night workers are instructed to make sure their desk is bright enough for the camera to see what is happening.
Howard Beckett, Unite’s deputy general secretary, said the union “will fight legally and industrially to avoid any push to normalize home surveillance.”
Andy McDonald, the shadow labor rights minister, said that, especially when companies relied on home-based staff to keep them running, it was wrong to impose “invasive surveillance that will erode their rights to privacy and create a climate of fear and mistrust. ” .
After The Guardian asked Teleperformance about UK staff concerns, a senior manager contacted employees to explain that they would not be randomly monitored, adding that it was “extremely disappointing” that the media were alerted and that this was considered a serious offense. It is unclear why UK staff were initially told to wait for the comprehensive surveillance system.
A spokesperson for Teleperformance said the company wanted to discuss any concerns with workers and that the webcam system was intended to “respond to the overwhelming concerns of isolation, lack of commitment and support from the team, not seeing anyone one day to another, raised by those who are at home ”.
She said: “We absolutely trust that they will do their job in a professional manner. We take the concerns you raised very seriously … as they couldn’t be further from the truth. “
No staff would be forced to work from home, the spokesperson said, and discussions would be held to reassure them. However, it was “of the utmost importance that our employees work in a secure home office environment to meet the expectations of our clients and their clients for a high level of protection when it comes to processing their personal data, including personal data. confidential, “she said.
