Campaign urges call centre employees to 'Hang up on abuse'
Call centre employees routinely face racist, sexual and threatening comments from customers, but their national union has launched a campaign urging their employers to adopt a "Hang up on abuse" policy.
The United Steelworkers, which represents about 10,000 call centre employees across Canada, wants them to be able to end or pass on abusive calls without fear of losing their jobs, and it's seeking the public's support through an online petition.
As it stands, some call centres have policies against hanging up, said Nancy Hutchison, the head of the union's health, safety and environment department.
"So they demand that the workers — regardless of what's being said on the other end of the phone — do not hang up," she said
"We find that very harmful and destructive to the call centre workers that have to take this abuse on an ongoing basis."