What is Teleperformance (TP) Greece?
TP Greece is a subsidiary of the French multinational company “Teleperformance”, which undertakes customer service for products of technology giants (e.g. Apple, Meta, Google, Dropbox, Paypal). The company has been experiencing steady growth in recent years, demonstrating profitability of €61.1 million and a turnover of €454 million for 2023 (an increase of 17.1% and 9.6% respectively compared to last year). The company presents itself as a business success story, ‘selling’ the image of a modern and progressive workplace that contributes greatly to the growth of the national economy. It is currently the fourth-largest employer in the country, with over 13,000 employees based in Athens, Thessaloniki, and Chania.
A modern environment of intensified labor exploitation
The company’s executives present a beautified image of TP with every opportunity, i.e. one of the best workplace. However, the reality behind Teleperformance’s “best workplace” is very different.
The pace of work in the call centers is extremely intensified under the pressure of successive calls. People work towards demanding performance scales, resulting in managers downsizing (i.e. retaliatory movement of employees to other posts) and even layoffs. Salaries are low and are not enough to cover basic needs (i.e. in a time period of high inflation in food, rent and basic goods).
Employees work on contracts lasting 6 months to 1 year, mainly through temporary employment agencies. More than 40% of workers have permanent contracts, which means that almost 60% work on fixed-term contracts. Temporary employment agencies conduct short term/recurring contracts with employees, even though they are essentially employed by Teleperformance — often for many years. The constant movement of employees from one temporary employment agency to another allows TP to avoid legislation that promotes the conversion to of short term contracts to permanent contracts after successive renewals with the same employer.
According to labor law (article 117 par. 3 of Law 4052/2012, which incorporates relevant EU directives), an employee cannot work for an indirect employer for a period longer than three years. In the event that the 36-month limit is exceeded, the employee’s contract with the indirect employer is automatically converted into a permanent contract. In short, if an employee worked for a direct employer (a temporary employment agency such as Randstad) and on behalf of Teleperformance as an indirect employer for more than three years, the contract would automatically be converted into a permanent contract with the indirect employer, i.e. Teleperformance.
Through the status of continuous short-term contracts and the mediation of temporary employment agencies, Teleperformance’s bosses ensure:
a) the reduction of labor costs, since the company is exempt from obligations such as compensations,
b) the imposition of a status of fear and hostage-taking on employees — i.e. anyone who is not obedient or does not “fit” into their demands is simply left out when the contract expires.
And this is exactly what happened with employees, members of the SETEP union, who demanded better working conditions. Today, the majority of the people who led the strikes, as well as members of the union’s representatives, have been vengefully fired by the company by not renewing their contracts.
Enough is Enough!
Workers at Teperformance and other major call centers in the country (FoundEver, WebHelp, Cosmote-evalue) where similar working conditions prevail, were engaged in a cycle of struggle. This begun in February 2024 with mass strikes and the creation of unions (at TP and WebHelp) which numbered hundreds of members. The spark was lit by Tunisian colleagues, who, among other things, were also facing the “special purpose visa regime, i.e. they risked deportation if they did not have an active employment contract with a call center, as they are citizens of a non-EU country.
For 1.5 years, these workers took matters into their own hands and organized mass assemblies based on the principles of direct democracy, also held in two languages. Such processes evolved into mobilization in the form of hourly work stoppages and strikes, demonstrations, etc., with the aim, on one hand, of signing a collective labor agreement and, on the other hand, breaking the slave-like labor conditions, especially those concerning non-EU citizens workers. For the later, as soon as their contract ended, they also lost the right to stay in the country. These mobilizations actually achieved a lot, some of which are the following: the decoupling of the special purpose visa from their employment contract at Teleperformance, the abolition of the temporary employment agencies used by TP, the establishment of a union within the company.
The significance of the long-running struggle at TP
The Movements for Class Autonomy considered the struggle at Teleperformance as an important one, not only because of the militant attitude that was demonstrated by the multinational community of strikers, nor only because it is essentially a mobilization against new labor relations such as teleworking. The telephone operators found ways to overcome isolation, using social networks for communication purposes, organizing and coordinating their actions. In this way, they demonstrated that new technologies can become tools of organization and solidarity even in teleworking conditions.
For these and many other reasons, but mainly because the increase of worldwide military tensions between states clearly highlight that the real issues of political activity must be reorientated on the basis of the militant premise: Class against Class. This aligns with an internationalist approach according to which the multiplication of such movements can change the course of the world towards the barbarity of a new war.
In solidarity with Teleperformance workers in struggle
The Movements of Class Solidarity tried to support this struggle in every way possible with all its might. One and a half years ago, following an invitation by a group of politicized call center workers —some of whom were already in the process of mobilizing for strike action at Teleperformance— an initiative called “Workers at Call Centers & IT” was formed. Its purpose was to strengthen the already existing resistances developing in these fields and, first and foremost, the existing mobilization at the company.
After the wave of layoffs of employees and members of SETEP which took place in December 2024, the initiative, together with other collectives and employees from Teleperformance that had been fired, we created the solidarity campaign “We all know”.
The solidarity campaign aimed to make the struggle more widely known, particularly in the frame of the competitive movement and in the world of work. Its main goal was to highlight the vengeful dismissals. It did so publicizing posters, texts and carrying out interventions to the company’s customers. Highlighting the fact that TP has been firing strikers, clearly disturbed the company, which sent extrajudicial notices to former employees and members of the board of SETEP.
We knew from the start that the solidarity campaign could not replace the work that needed to be done within the company. The role of our actions was to complement. In many cases, we could also proceed to forms of actions that the union itself could not undertake. The campaign highlighted the importance of such initiatives is and how vulnerable companies are that rely on advertising their“good corporate profile”. However, at the same time, most of the laid-off workers found work in other call centers, which meant that the possibility of meaningfully intervening within Teleperformance was lost. The nature of teleworking also seemed to have contributed to the objective difficulty of maintaining contact with TP employees. We recognize this as a deficit and as a limitation of our action, so that solidarity can continue to be expressed within the company.
Today, the struggle is at a critical point. The case of retaliatory dismissals will be decided in the courts, which means that it will take time. SETEP today does not resemble the union it was a year ago: a vibrant community of struggle with frequent assemblies and actions. Also, a significant part of the members who pioneered the strikes and formed an autonomous, militant tendency within it, no longer work at Teleperformance.
Within these conditions, questions emerge that need to be answered. They concern the effectiveness of our action in workplaces today:
– How can we protect ourselves from layoffs that take the form of“non-renewal of contracts” as part of the exploitative model of temporary employment services — one of the modern weapons of employers’ blackmail?
– How can a labor organization (such as a grassroots assembly, committee or union) establish and/or regain a beneficial power relationship in a workplace dominated by flexible and temporary forms of employment?
Movements for Class Autonomy (KTA)