Third Party Harassment Survey

Third Party Harassment – take the call centre survey

16th April 2013

CWU has today (Tuesday) launched a survey which gives call centre workers the opportunity to document evidence relating to third party harassment at work. Both members and non-members are able to participate as the union is seeking to build an accurate picture of the full extent of the problem.

Take the survey now.

What is it?
Third party harassment means being subject to abuse by a customer or client whilst at work, as opposed to a colleague or manager. It's more prevalent in some lines of work than others, with call centre workers and retail staff all too frequently on the receiving end. It can take many forms, including sexist or racist language, xenophobic attitudes, foul language, and abusive comments.

Some workers become desensitised to this harassment and take it as 'a hazard of the job'. CWU believes harassment is unacceptable in any form and must be properly tackled. The union has heard appalling examples of call centre workers being abused by callers and of employers not taking the necessary steps when being made aware of the harassment. It is this evidence - gathered during visits to call centres in Northern Ireland towards the end of 2012- which triggered the desire for a wider survey.

Anonymous evidence
This exercise is designed to give all workers based in a call centre the opportunity to provide the CWU with vital evidence which can then be shared with employers accordingly to develop supportive policy.

All submissions will remain completely anonymous and the survey only takes a few minutes to complete.

Please click here to take the survey now.

Anyone working in a UK call centre is eligible to take this survey.

 CWU hopes to report back the findings of the survey in early June.

This is a joint initiative involving the Telecoms and Financial Services and the Equality Department.

Any enquiries should be directed to: equality@cwu.org

For more information on third party harrassment, read the feature in the latest edition of Women's Talk magazine.

 CWU has members in a range of call centres - working for companies including BT, O2, Royal Mail and Santander. If you work for a call centre

in the postal, telecoms or mobile sector why not join CWU today and take advantage of a range of benefits? Freephone 0800 731 7434 or e-mailjoinunion@cwu.orgfor more information or to join now.