CWA Issue Brief
Protections against Abusive Monitoring
CWA Goals

Call center employers monitor workers’ performance by listening to live calls, recording calls, reviewing
progress through screen shots and keystrokes, and other methods. Monitoring involves subjective
judgments and, when done with discipline as the goal, creates stressful working conditions that harm
employees’ health. These conditions raise costs for employers through high rates of stress-related
illness, absenteeism, and turnover. CWA believes that call monitoring, screen monitoring, and callrecording should be used for coaching and developmental purposes only.
To protect employees from monitoring abuse, CWA contracts include these provisions: Prior notification that monitoring will take place Opportunity to select the form of monitoring (e.g. side-by-side, remote, recorded) Prompt feedback Limitation on the number of calls and/or sessions that can be monitored Protection from discipline as a result of monitoring Peer coaching to improve performance

CWA Best Practice Contract

The CWA contract with AT&T has included language to protect operators and customer service
employees from abusive monitoring since first negotiated in the early 1980s. As AT&T (the former longdistance company, now referred to as “Legacy T”) expanded monitoring to screen capture and callrecording, CWA negotiated additional provisions. The current language reads:“Employees will be informed of individual call monitoring the day that it occurs and can choose
either electronic or side-by-side monitoring. Feedback will be provided to the employee by theend of the day. No employee shall be disciplined as a result of monitoring, except in cases ofgross customer abuse, fraud, violation of the privacy of communications, or if developmental
efforts have not been helpful. Employees will not be disciplined or evaluated on calls sampledthrough process monitoring (not tied to the individual). Call recording must be shown on theemployee’s schedule and cannot exceed four hours in length. Employees will have the right todelete recorded calls and screen activity or save them for a short time for training. Recorded
samples may only be used for training purposes.” (CWA/AT&T “Legacy T” Letter of Agreement,
2012)

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Protections in Other CWA Contracts

CWA/AT&T Southwest
Prior Notification: The Company must provide employees with prior notification of monitoring.
Employees with at least six months of tenure have the option of remote or side-by-side monitoring.
Feedback: The Company must provide feedback regarding the monitored calls by the end of the day.
Protection from Discipline as a Result of Monitoring: Employees cannot be disciplined as a result ofmonitoring, except in cases of customer abuse, fraud, or gross misconduct.
AT&T West
Prior Notification: Monitoring can only occur when a visual marker is displayed to indicate thatmonitoring is taking place and when a published monthly or weekly recording and monitoring scheduleat the team/section level has been provided to employees.
Feedback: The Company must provide feedback within 24 hours. For recorded calls, the supervisor must
review within one week of the recording and then provide feedback within 24 hours.
Limitation on Number of Calls Monitored: For Service Representatives, monitoring and recording forevaluation and discipline purposes is limited to 10 calls per month, once per day, and on no more than
two days per month. No more than 10 calls may be recorded. For Operators, remote monitoring islimited to 30 calls (for TOPS operators) and 50 calls (for directory assistance) per month, three days permonth, and one monitoring session per day. For employees with less than 6 months tenure, monitoring
can occur up to twice this amount.
Protection from Discipline as a Result of Monitoring: No employee will be dismissed solely as a result ofmonitoring, except when a breach of privacy of communications, fraud, loss of revenue, or grosscustomer abuse occurs. The intent of call recording is for coaching and training purposes. Desk Top
Screen shots will be used primarily for coaching and training purposes.
Union Access to Information. The Company will provide local union representatives with recording usage
reports upon request. The Union will have full participation in the creation and implementation of thecommunication plan of call recording and to describe the protections in the Memorandum ofAgreement.
AT&T Midwest
Prior Notification: Employees with more than 6 months job tenure will be notified the day themonitoring takes place. Employees have the option of remote or side-by-side monitoring.
Prompt Feedback: Feedback will be provided to the monitored employee by the end of the day.
Protection from Discipline as a Result of Monitoring: Service or Diagnostic monitoring will not be used toevaluate or punish individual employees, except in cases of fraud, customer abuse, or violation of theCode of Business Conduct.
AT&T Southeast
Prior Notification: Employees will have prior notification when call sampling occurs and the option of
remote or side-by-side monitoring.
Prompt Feedback: Feedback will be provided to the monitored employee by the end of the day.
Protection from Discipline as a Result of Monitoring: Process monitoring cannot be used for disciplinary
purposes except in cases of gross misconduct.
Limitation on Number of Calls Monitored: Service observing for the purposes of training is capped at 25times per month for individual employees. However, disciplinary actions cannot be taken except forcases of gross misconduct.

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AT&T East
Prior Notification: Customer service employees that perform well on their evaluation shall be notified atleast 24 hours in advance of monitoring. The number of days that monitoring can occur is capped atthree per month. This status can be revoked if the employee does not meet 90 percent of call flow for
three consecutive months, and once lost, it takes three consecutive months of 90 percent call flowscores.
Limitation on Number of Calls Monitored: For Service Consultants and All Distance Specialists (e.g.
operator titles), observed and recorded calls are limited to two to 10, depending on employee skill anddevelopment needs.
Protection from Discipline as a Result of Monitoring. Evaluation monitoring is for development, however,an employee can be disciplined if there is gross misconduct or continually fails to meet performancestandards.
Verizon Mid-Atlantic
Prior Notification: Employees who receive a rating of “exceeds requirements” or “meets allrequirements” shall be provided advance notification of evaluative observations. The company shallprovide 30 days notice to the union when call recording occurs in any office.
Limitation on Number of Calls Monitored: Evaluative observations are capped based on a Consultant’s
rating: 20 observations per year for those that “exceeds requirements,” 30 per year for those that“meets all requirements,” 40 per year for all others.
Evaluative monitoring may take place only during the first eight hours of a scheduled work day for
employees with a 35-hour work week, or the first 8.5 hours for employees with a 37.5 hour work week.
On a Monday and the day after a holiday, evaluative observations may take place during the first 7/7.5
hours of the day.
Protection from Discipline as a Result of Monitoring: No employee shall be disciplined as a result ofService Observing or Diagnostic Observing, except for gross misconduct. Failure to attempt to sell afeature or to bridge to sales is not considered gross misconduct. The electronic recording of calls can beused only for Service Observing and Supervisory Observing. The monitoring language negotiated for
non-recorded observations shall also apply to recorded calls. When Service and Diagnostic observations
calls are electronically recorded, the Company may only impose discipline if it endeavors to provide
face-to-face feedback by the close of the day on which the observation was taken or provided thefollowing business day the employee and the supervisor are on the job.
Verizon California
Feedback: The results of performance monitoring/recording will be shared as soon as possible withemphasis on reinforcing the positive and suggestions for improvement.
Protection from Discipline as a Result of Monitoring: Information related to an employee’s performance,obtained as a result of performance monitoring/recording will be used for coaching, counseling, andtraining purposes. Performance monitoring/recording results will be averaged to ensure that anemployee is not adversely impacted by the evaluation of a single call.
Limitation on Number of Calls Monitored: Specific performance monitoring/recording guidelines will beestablished; employees will be informed of such guidelines.

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Century Link (former Qwest)
Limitation on Number of Calls Monitored: For evaluative monitoring, up to four calls can be monitored
and recorded per month.
Protection from Discipline as a Result of Monitoring: Monitoring is designed for training anddevelopment, but the results of monitoring can be used as part of performance evaluation. Monthly
evaluation will be based on a cumulative score of recorded and observed calls.
FairPoint
Feedback: The company shall give face-to-face feedback on monitored calls.
Limitation on Number of Calls Monitored: An employee can only be monitored a maximum of four daysin a month and a maximum of four calls per session.
US Airways
Feedback: Feedback from all monitored calls must be provided to the employee by the end of the day ofthe completed contact or no later than the next scheduled work day.
Protection from Discipline as a Result of Monitoring: Employees cannot be disciplined as a result of callmonitoring except for gross misconduct, fraud, violation of privacy of communications, or whendevelopmental efforts have not been successful.
AT&T Mobility (“Orange” contract, CWA Districts 1,2-13,4,7,9)
Feedback: The Company will generally review a call quality observation or sales floor observation within
the employee’s next two scheduled work days.
Protection from Discipline as a Result of Monitoring: Employees failing to meet performance
expectations will first be coached when they are not currently on a step of progressive discipline for
performance when performance issue is a first offense.
AT&T Internet Services (District 3 agreement)
Feedback: Employees must be notified when call monitoring takes place.
Limitation on Number of Calls Monitored: Monitoring may not exceed 30 calls per month.
Los Angeles Daily News
Limitations on Monitoring: The Employer will not use telephone monitoring devices without the consent
of the employee. There shall be no secret electronic surveillance or tape recordings without theknowledge and consent of the union.
Washington Post
Images or other information collected through video cameras or other such safety/security surveillance
will not be used to assess or evaluate employees’ job performance.

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February 2014