Asda safe working for women in the Philippines

[finnmcool]

I've just got off the phone to Asda customer service in the Philippines. We had a chin wag about Safe Working Practice. Non existant.
To quote the woman I was speaking to, 'we pray that we will be safe'
Who do I lobby and how?
Vodafone provide safe passage to work, why isn't Asda?

Asda is owned by Walmart, which is a US company. In the US they don't have great staffing policies, the UK is better because we still have some left over human rights protection. For now.

OP your post doesn't have enough information to comment on. I take it you are referring to an Asda mobile call centre in the Philippines?

Lass yes, it was ringing customer service from the UK about an online grocery order.
Sorry for not being clear.

Thank you Badpenny

How on earth did you get onto safe working practices?

@Karbones It did actually. I can't believe I have to go into this banal detail.
My shopping was an hour and a half late and was missing one item.
I could get a refund online, but to get my delivery charge refunded, I had to ring customer service.
I'm a chatty person and the time difference came up, I asked if Asda pay for a mini bus like Vodafone do (I used to be a customer and I had that conversation)
I expressed my surprise, and that's when she said about praying to be safe.
Instead of being an arse, make a helpful comment or say nothing.
There was absolutely no need for that response to me asking for help. That was nasty and uncalled for.

what is the mini bus for?

guiltynetter I imagine it takes people to and from work at unsocial hours. If companies insist on outsourcing call centre work then you will clearly hit the problem of time differences, as OP says. Many places are very unsafe, Manila being one of them. I had never seen so many guns in my life. So these poor workers pray to get to work safely. That's all they can do. And their employer doesn't care.

Unfortunately the Philippines is extremely corrupt it would take years and years of intervention and a complete overhaul of people in power. It would also be very dangerous and people would most certainly be murdered.

Perhaps the first step would be to contact Asda and hopefully instead of removing their call centre from the Philippines Asda could start a drive for better conditions.

Thank you, I'll call tomorrow then and see what happens.
She had started work before 6am and I feel like I should use my voice as a customer, its just not right.

How do you know that your call was not recorded and/or logged in some way and this woman will get into trouble, or even get the sack, for reporting conditions to you?

If that's the case, there's a lot more to be concerned about than getting to and from work safely.
If a big company like Asda is allowing people to be treated like that, where is their duty of care?

Manila is a 24 hour city, the roads are quieter in the early hours, but there is transport running at all hours especially as lots of people travel long distances to get to work. I'm not sure how a minibus would work, people travel from miles around, but maybe vodafone were in an odd spot so needed to provide transport? Taxis might be preferable to jeepneys (busses) but that's not super sustainable, it's a very busy city. I'm not knocking your concern btw, they should be encouraged to do anything they can to make life easier/safer.