deutsche bank 24/duisburg (1)

text in german
From the hotlines-leaflet no. 1 on working hours (October 2000):

Lousy shifts

The Deutsche Bank 24 has call centers in Duisburg, Bonn and Berlin. In September 1999 the Deutsche Bank was taken over by the Bank 24. That is true: in order to prevent that the employees of Bank 24 fall under the collective agreement for the old Deutsche Bank, the daugther Bank 24 swallowed the mother Deutsche Bank.
The conditions in the call centers are: 40 hour-week for full time employees, shift work (partly 24 hours, partly between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.) with constantly changing shifts, wages in inbound (bank accounts...) around 20 DM an hour and in outbound (customer attraction, marketing...) a bit more. In inbound calls are put straight through to the headset (without the agent pressing a button to accept it) so that you have to be alert all the time. Sometimes there is one call after the other, like doing piecework, always the same, monotonous and awful. Early and late you might sit around bored because no soul is calling. Due to the shift work sometimes you start working at 7 a.m., sometimes at 10 a.m or at 1 p.m. It happens that you have less than 11 hours between shifts. It is draining.
There is a works council (Betriebsrat), which fiddles around with management (for instance on the hourly breaks for working on computer screens). But what could the work council get through. We have to take things into our own hands. That is difficult, because many work there only for a short period. Whoever has had enough is looking for another job.
It is time for the unsatisfied to get together and do something against the work stress!
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