BPOs push for work-from-home policy

WESTERN BUREAU:

With the impact of COVID-19 still fresh in their minds, key players in the Global Services Association of Jamaica (GSAJ), formerly known as the Business Process Industry Association of Jamaica (BPIAJ), are urging their business colleagues to support a proposed work-from-home policy that will see at least 30 per cent of their staff complement carrying out their jobs from home.

But Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs, Marlene Malahoo-Forte, while cautiously supporting the idea, said that the Government must consider the parameters within which the companies operate.

“What you want are laws to enable you to continue to work from home, but it’s not just your sector that needs to pivot in its thinking. The Government has to contend with what is space and does the space need to be physically defined as it is now in the exclusive economic zone,” said Malahoo Forte.

“Immediately I know that there are going to be a lot of questions asked, and the concession that you get on the tax front, those were conceived in a particular concept and the Government will be challenged to rethink that concept.”

According to Malahoo Forte, once the Government is prepared to give such concessions, the Cabinet will have to be willing to make adjustments to the structure.

“You can be at ease (but) I can’t tell you how the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service will make the ultimate decision when the (request) is made. But given the role that I have, I will help to make the case for you. And I will help to have the structure redone to achieve the goals,” she assured.

Malahoo Forte was responding to an appeal from Marjorie Straw, programme director for skills development at the GSAJ, who urged the membership to lend their full support for the work-from-home policy during the association’s president’s breakfast forum at the Jewel Grande Montego Bay resort on Friday.

Future of work

“Let’s remember, when COVID hit our shores early 2020, it was the work-from-home (arrangement) that allowed the sector to rebound. This policy allowed the sector to continue to contribute significantly to the Jamaican economy; work from home is where the future of work is going,” she stressed.

In 2020, there were several instances where business process outsourcing companies (BPOs) were forced to close, deep clean, and operate within GSAJ and the government-established COVID-19 protocols.

Straw noted that there is now great resistance in North America and other countries to going back to work within the walls of the BPO spaces.

“Let’s dispel the notion once and for all that those who work from home are less productive than others who are in some kind of designated office space… working from home is where we are going to end up sooner or later,” she argued.

The GSAJ, commonly referred to as BPO, provides employment for approximately 55,000 persons from 90 companies. These companies operate within the special economic zone and receive an incentive where they are charged a lower rate for corporate income tax at 12.5 per cent.

“We’ve had to pivot to work at home during the pandemic. We are seeing that work from home has been more productive by up to 17 per cent,” said Gloria Henry, president of the GSAJ. “The customers themselves are building work at home into their global business continuity strategy.”

She stated that BPO customers are saying that working from home is a better model for continuity and that regional countries such as Nicaragua, Panama, Honduras, and Colombia have all moved to establish a work-from-home policy which prescribes a certain percentage of the business to be done remotely without it affecting the benefit in the special economic zone.

“We are asking for a ratio that allows us to continue to be compliant with the special economic zone, but still be able to remain globally competitive with our peers in the region by having a percentage that does not impair our special economic zone benefits,” Henry said.