Councilor pushes online job interviews, work from home arrangements

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

 

Iloilo City Councilor Candice Magdalene Tupas on Wednesday called on the city’s business sector to provide more accessible avenues for job applicants and employees amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis in the city.

In a privilege speech during the regular session of the Iloilo City Council on Wednesday, Tupas highlighted the protection of the health of vulnerable workers in the city as an “urgent task”.

“During these difficult times, it is [our] utmost priority to strengthen the capacity of our healthcare system in order to control the outbreak. However, I am raising the need to protect the vulnerable workers which for me is also an urgent task,” Tupas said.

The councilor added that she strongly encourages companies in the city to adapt more “practical” approaches to job-seeking and job applications.

“Economic reactivation should be backed by stronger employment policies and comprehensive social protection systems. One concern is for a more accessible job-seeking system for workers. I strongly encourage companies to offer an online interview for applicants. This measure is practical for aspiring employers as well as for the employees, as social distancing is effective against contracting diseases,” she said.

She mentioned the confirmed COVID-19 cases which were traced to a business process outsourcing (BPO) firm in Mandurriao district, adding that their job as agents have affected their physical and mental health.

“Recently, our city was saddened by the increased number of COVID-positive cases of call center agents. A lot of families and households were affected, call centers or BPOs is one of the fastest-growing sectors, driving employment and economic growth in our city today. Surveys show that workers in the BPO sector experience high levels of stress, and its related disorders primarily due to its contemporary work settings. The nature of the job forced our workers to live as Ilonggos by day and Westerners after sundown, with changed identities and locations to suit their international customers,” she said.

Tupas, a medical doctor by profession, said BPO workers’ line of work have shown significant signs of job stress, which in turn, affect their circadian rhythm.

The American nonprofit Sleep Foundation defines circadian rhythms as “the 24-hour cycles that are part of the body’s internal clock, running in the background to carry out essential functions and processes.”

The body’s systems follow these circadian rhythms that are synchronized with a master clock in the brain, which, in turn, are directly influenced by factors such as the light, which is why circadian rhythms are tied to the cycle of day and night.

Circadian rhythms may promote consistent and restorative sleep or create significant sleeping problems, depending whether they are properly aligned.

Research also ties circadian rhythms to key aspects of mental and physical health.

The councilor mentioned one of the most important and well-known circadian rhythms, the sleep-wake cycle, which she has said to be heavily affected by the adjustments made by BPO workers, ultimately rendering their bodies weaker.

“Call time pressure dealing with hostile customers, reading pre-scripted conversations on the phone endlessly, system monitoring of call activities, and difficulty in providing good customer service while simultaneously meeting time targets are found to be significant sources of job stress. This is associated by experts’ repetitive brain strain. This sector which is mostly comprised of our young workers work at times when they would normally be sleeping. This, according to studies, can challenge the individual’s circadian rhythm, because the sleep-wake internal clock setting is at odds with sleep-wake cycle of the shift’s schedule, ultimately resulting in circadian rhythm sleep disorder. These I can say are some of the factors which make our BPO sector susceptible to sickness, and one is [the] coronavirus,” Tupas said.

She also urged the BPOs, the Iloilo City government, and other businesses in the city to provide alternative work arrangements such as the Work-From-Home scheme as well as additional health-related benefits such as supplements and periodic health checks.

“I respectfully encourage all BPOs and Iloilo City to provide a more favorable work arrangement and setting to their employees at this time of [the] pandemic. Those assigned on graveyard shift must be offered a work from home arrangement. This will enable them to get their much-needed rest in this time, when health is the most compromised aspect of everyone’s [lives]. I also urge these BPOs to provide additional health-related benefits to their workers such as vitamins and immunity boosters. Periodic health examination should also be taken for early detection and prevention of sickness,” she said as she ended her speech.

The councilor then proposed a resolution urging businesses in the city to make online interviews available for job applicants, which was approved by the city council without any objections.