Live agents at one of the worlds leading call centre firms will be monitored by webcams to check whether they are eating, looking at their phones or leaving their desks while remote working.
Teleperformance – which employs about 380,000 people in 34 countries – informed staff specialist webcams will be fitted to check for “infractions” and will be connected to an artificial intelligence system that randomly scans for breaches of work rules during a shift.
If a breach is detected, a photo will be sent to a manager, according to documents sent to staff.
The image will be kept on file for 20 days.
Should agents need to leave their desks to have a drink or use the bathroom, they will have to click ‘break mode’ and explain why. Eating on shift is against the rules for the company, staff have been told.
The document states: “If the system detects no keyboard stroke and mouse click, it will show you as idle for that particular duration, and it will be reported to your supervisor. So please avoid hampering your productivity.”
A training video about the webcam system also adds it “monitors and tracks real-time employee behaviour and detects any violations to pre-set business rules, and sends real-time alerts to managers to take corrective actions immediately”.
The move triggered warnings from unions and MPs about the normalisation of home surveillance.
The news comes as Teleperformance’s 10,000 UK employees were told that AI scanning cameras would be installed next month for staff continuing to work from home.
