Mark Your Calendar for Call Center Month

October is Call Center Action Month, and this year, actions will focus on compensation and professionalism.

The month-long campaign, organized by UNI Global Union, spotlights the work and conditions of customer service professionals worldwide and identifies strategies to build both compensation and respect for call center workers.

"In many countries, the average compensation for a call center agent falls short in comparison to other service jobs, despite the fact that a call center job requires a range of different skills and can be extremely stressful. In some countries, factors like external competition or outsourcing (and even insourcing) also drive down pay and conditions in the call center," UNI said.

Last year, U.S. call center workers lobbied members of Congress for national call center legislation to stop companies that move customer service jobs offshore from taking advantage of taxpayer grants and loans.

New legislation just was introduced by U.S. Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY) and a bipartisan group of lawmakers. The "U.S. Call Center and Worker Protection Act of 2013," H.R. 2909, also includes "Press 1 For America," provisions that require call center employees to identify the country from which they are taking the call, and if that's outside the United States, offer consumers the opportunity to be transferred back to a U.S. facility.