BPO employees hail sector

BY HORACE HINES Observer West reporter

Friday, October 10, 2014    

MONTEGO BAY, St James — Yoni Epstein, chairman of the Business Processing Industry Association of Jamaica (BPIAJ) has dispelled the notion that customer service agent positions in the BPO sector are dead-end jobs.

He stoutly defended the sector, which employs over 10,000 persons at call centres located in Montego Bay, St James and 14,000 persons nationally, noting that it provides vast career opportunities.

“The agent position is merely a stepping stone to a career in the sector. There is much scope for elevation. Many per sons who started as agents have since risen up through the ranks,” Epstein stated.

Epstein added: “Persons are trained on the job so it is easier to promote persons internally than to seek externally. It builds the moral of the workers.”

A number of persons who have been elevated to managerial positions after starting as agents gave the

Observer West an account of their upward journey in the sector.

Rhonda Rodriguez Simpson, an American-born of Jamaican parentage, who is now employed at Global Outsourcing Solutions, was among those who shared their story.

“I spent nearly two years unemployed after losing the last job from a call centre. So when Global Outsourcing Solutions called me and offered me the position I gladly took up the offer,” Simpson said.

“A few months later I became a manager and I am currently a project manager and I hear that there are more things in the pipeline for me as we speak.”

Michael Daley shared a similar success story.

“I started in the BPO Industry in 2008 as an agent and today I am Director of Operations for Itel BPO in 2014. The BPO industry has allowed me to provide sufficiently for my family and accumulate the necessary wealth to be well on my way to achieving the Jamaican dream,” Daley revealed.

View the original article here

BPO employees hail sector

BPO employees hail sector

BY HORACE HINES Observer West reporter

Friday, October 10, 2014    

MONTEGO BAY, St James — Yoni Epstein, chairman of the Business Processing Industry Association of Jamaica (BPIAJ) has dispelled the notion that customer service agent positions in the BPO sector are dead-end jobs.

He stoutly defended the sector, which employs over 10,000 persons at call centres located in Montego Bay, St James and 14,000 persons nationally, noting that it provides vast career opportunities.

“The agent position is merely a stepping stone to a career in the sector. There is much scope for elevation. Many per sons who started as agents have since risen up through the ranks,” Epstein stated.

Epstein added: “Persons are trained on the job so it is easier to promote persons internally than to seek externally. It builds the moral of the workers.”

A number of persons who have been elevated to managerial positions after starting as agents gave the

Observer West an account of their upward journey in the sector.

Rhonda Rodriguez Simpson, an American-born of Jamaican parentage, who is now employed at Global Outsourcing Solutions, was among those who shared their story.

“I spent nearly two years unemployed after losing the last job from a call centre. So when Global Outsourcing Solutions called me and offered me the position I gladly took up the offer,” Simpson said.

“A few months later I became a manager and I am currently a project manager and I hear that there are more things in the pipeline for me as we speak.”

Michael Daley shared a similar success story.

“I started in the BPO Industry in 2008 as an agent and today I am Director of Operations for Itel BPO in 2014. The BPO industry has allowed me to provide sufficiently for my family and accumulate the necessary wealth to be well on my way to achieving the Jamaican dream,” Daley revealed.

View the original article here

BPO employees hail sector

Colombia to charge US firm employees

31 January 2014 Last updated at 19:50 ET A barge is loaded with coal in Santa Marta: the practice is now illegal in Colombia Colombian chief prosecutor Eduardo Montealegre says he will bring charges against six employees of the US coal mining company, Drummond, over an environmental disaster last year.

The company spilled hundreds of tonnes of coal into the sea at Santa Marta, on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, when it tried to rescue a sinking barge.

Drummond said it regretted what it described as “an industrial accident”.

The company had been ordered to pay a $3.5m (£2.1m) fine.

The accident happened in January 2013.

Drummond says on its website that one of its barges loaded with coal “took on water overnight due to high wind and wave conditions”.

In the operation to rescue the barge, crane operators ended up dumping tonnes of coal into the sea.

The six employees being charged include onsite supervisors and crane operators.

Earlier this month, Colombia banned the use of cranes and barges in all its ports.

The rules are aimed at preventing spillage and sea pollution.

Environment Minister Luz Helena Sarmiento ordered the Alabama-based company to stop loading coal until it complies with new environmental rules.

The company is building a new conveyor belt loading system that complies with the legislation. It is expected to be operational in March.

In the meantime, the ban is expected to affect Colombia’s coal exports.

The South American nation is the world’s fourth coal exporter, and Drummond accounts for 30% of that total.

View the original article here

Colombia to charge US firm employees