Ready Call Center, a locally based customer care calling center for American cellular telephone company Tracfone, has had a checkered reputation since it opened its doors several years ago in Belize City.
It repeatedly ran afoul of the local laws and attracted media attention after some of its workers complained that the company was cheating them.
While the firm has since moved to a more spacious compound 13 miles up the Northern Highway, allegations of impropriety continue to stalk the company.
Last week Friday, four former customer care representatives, three of them at the preliminary (“nestee”) stage and the fourth at entry-level (“Ruby”), visited Amandala to vent their frustrations.
Alma Encalada, 31, of Corozal Town; Norberto Coye, 19, of August Pine Ridge, Orange Walk; and brother and sister Sherri and Gallardo Romero, 19 and 23, respectively, of Lords Bank, Belize District, all worked at Ready Call within the last month and resigned within two days of each other, for much the same reasons – repeated “miscalculations” of their respective salaries, and other points of discontent.
Encalada, speaking for the group, said that she and the Romeros started orientation on October 24 (Coye had started a week earlier). After one week of introduction to programming, they began taking real-life calls from customers on Friday, October 30. They had been told that they would be paid for the intervening weekend between the programming training and the training for quality control and other training, and expected to earn some $198 on an eight-hour schedule for seven days, at $4.00 an hour (less deductions).
Encalada says that she was due to have received her first paycheck on November 8 (and not the 12th, as the company had previously promised), but got no money. The company supervisor claimed a mistake in hours and promised to correct it with the next paycheck.
The next day, because she had no money to travel from where she was staying in Orange Walk Town, she spoke with a supervisor named “Lloyd” who told her about the company’s policy on salary advances, which would be deducted from the next paycheck. Alma says she accepted a $50 advance.
Encalada worked 48 hours that week, but was only paid for 42. Minus the advance, she only received a paycheck of $82.77, the hours still not corrected. She complained to evening shift supervisor Jamil Perez, who again promised to fix it. Upon checking the figures he reported that the shortfall would be made up the next week, but a frustrated Encalada chose to tender her resignation then and there.
Sherri Romero told us she received a $46 paycheck on November 8, and only $121.77 on the 15th, despite working more hours. Her brother, Gallardo, was paid a total of $149 for the two weeks, but believes that since he worked more hours, he should have been paid up to $40 more.
Coye, a step up from the others, worked a full eight-hour schedule from Monday to Sunday, including on his day-off, but was only paid $168, plus $42 from the training phase.
The figures may not seem like much, but none of the resigned employees believe they were treated fairly. Worse, they were part of a 15-member group that worked the same hours but were apparently paid differently. Their every attempt to speak to persons in authority was met with the same promise, that the situation would be remedied.
Working at Ready Call is a draining process that threatens to rob the representatives of their humanity, the workers told us, as they are forced to listen to irate customers berate them over the phone without a chance of answering back, for fear of being labeled “insubordinate” and fired. Only two bathroom breaks are allowed in an eight-hour shift; the general break is a mere 15 minutes, and sometimes workers are forced to wait for available computers because some are trying to make overtime at $6.00 an hour.
And in some cases, they were not able to even cash their meager checks, being told either that the account had no funds or that the bank needed authorization from Ready Call. Attempts to cash the checks at diverse places such as the Shell gas station in Orange Walk, the People’s Store, Mirab and Save-U Supermarket in Belize City were turned down.
The quartet has complained to the Labour Department, and we are told an investigation is underway.
Azucena Del Angel, personnel officer at Ready Call, declined comment today, stating that the matter is in the hands of the Labour Department. She previously told our colleagues at KREM News that wage payments have been delayed by a week as agreed with the Ministry of Labour, to prevent employees who took company advances from simply resigning without paying back those advances.