MANILA – The BPO Industry Employees Network (BIEN) acknowledged reports that the Philippine IT-BPM sector surpassed $40 billion in revenues in 2025 but said the industry’s historic growth has not resulted in stronger protection for workers.

“As record $40 billion growth is celebrated, we carried operations through typhoons, floods, fires, and earthquakes to deliver those numbers. We still face layoffs, job insecurity, and stagnant wages. What about us?” BIEN Vice President for Internals Jupiter Delda said.

BIEN said the same year the industry posted record revenues was also marked by disaster reporting issues, workplace safety incidents, and sudden layoffs across several companies. It added that despite rising revenues and investor expansion, many workers continue to face regional wage gaps, unstable employment arrangements, and inconsistent safety enforcement.

“An industry that can post historic profits should not be asking its workers to absorb historic risks,” Delda said. “If growth is real, then protection, stability, and living wages must be real too. Otherwise, record revenues are just record-breaking exploitation.”

The group said sustained industry competitiveness depends on worker security and dignity, and called for stronger occupational safety enforcement, genuine worker participation in compliance inspections, and policies that move wages closer to a living standard rather than the bare minimum.

“The sector’s milestones were not produced by numbers on a spreadsheet,” Delda said. “They were produced by workers who showed up during crises, kept systems running, and carried the pressure. There is no real progress in celebrating growth while workers’ conditions remain ignored.”