‘Don’t discriminate BPO workers’

By Dolly Yasa

 

BACOLOD City – Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran appealed on Tuesday to avoid discriminating call center agents.

Familiaran made the call after a call center official of a Business Process Outsourcing firm here succumbed to the coronavirus 2019 or COVID-19.

In a post on social media, Familiaran said the BPO industry has become the lifeblood of the Philippine economy, especially in Bacolod City.

“With the recent COVID 19 case in one of the BPO firms in Bacolod, the Inter-Agency Task Force against COVID-19 appeals to the public to stop from stigmatizing and discriminating against call center agents,” the vice mayor said.

“Please take note  that any act relative to the discrimination, if the prevention to do a legitimate act  is by means of threat, violence or intimidation is grave coercion (Article Revised  Penal Code) punishable by the penalty of prison correcional ( six months and one day to six years) of  imprisonment and a fine not exceeding not exceeding P6,000,” he added.