U.S.-Based Workforce, Unions Call on Teleperformance to Protect Service Quality

Teleperformance's acquisition of sign language provider ZP Better Together is straining under the weight of disinvestment.

Teleperformance (CAC 40:TEP)

PARIS, FRANCE, February 26, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- As Teleperformance releases their annual results on February 27, Teleperformance workers and users of their service have called on the French multinational to stop a further decline in service quality by fully implementing the UNI global agreement on workers rights in the United States. Teleperformance completed a $490 million acquisition of a crucial publicly funded sign language provider, ZP Better Together, on February 5.

Interpreters organizing with the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) have launched a Week of Action to bring attention to significant service quality and workers rights issues in Video Relay Service, including a press conference with Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) in front of the Federal Communications Commission on February 26 and a filing made with the Federal Communications Commission on Teleperformance’s application for permanent certification to provide VRS.

“As a sign language interpreter providing an essential service for the millions of Americans that are Deaf, Deaf-Blind, or Hard-of-Hearing, I know that the only way we can ensure that the service is protected is by the extension of Teleperformance’s global agreement with UNI to the United States,” said Felix Reyes, an OPEIU member in New York City who works at ZP. “AI only becomes a real risk in this sub sector—for both workers and Teleperformance’s volatile share price—if the service quality loses its human touch due to insufficient training, recruitment and retention of qualified hearing and Deaf interpreters, and failure to invest in high quality software and hardware.”

“As a Deaf interpreter and user of VRS, I can confirm that I had to stop using ZP due to the previous owners’ failure to meaningfully invest in this service. Teleperformance can work to rectify this situation and bring back the Deaf users that provide its revenue base in VRS by meaningfully investing in ZP, including by recruiting and retaining Deaf interpreters and managers, and by fully implementing the global agreement with UNI in the United States,” said Dr. Shaelyn O’Riordan, a Deaf interpreter and user active in the ASL Interpreters Union - OPEIU. “Due to a history of private equity extraction, our community is deeply skeptical of outside companies coming in and purchasing VRS firms. Teleperformance can make this right by immediately working to address our concerns.”

“As the leader of a union representing 90,000 workers across the United States, I strongly urge Teleperformance to immediately begin to implement the UNI global agreement in the United States,” said Tyler Turner, the President of the Office and Professional Employees International Union. “Teleperformance should not take advantage of Trump’s gutting of American labor law enforcement to avoid its international obligations, including obligations under France’s 2017 duty of vigilance law and the EU’s 2024 Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.”

“In this time of rapid technological change, front line workers need to have a protected voice on the job so that they can advocate for improvements to their working conditions and to the critical services they provide customers,” said Claude Cummings Jr., President of the Communications Workers of America. “Implementing the UNI workers’ rights framework in the United States will ensure fair treatment for ZP Better Together workers and give Teleperformance valuable insight into issues that have affected the ability of the video relay service to retain customers.”

Brandon Nessen
OPEIU
+1 612-810-2103
bnessen@opeiu.org