Woman fired from call centre after
SHERIL Daley is protesting a decision by her former employer, a popular call centre, to fire her months after discovering that she had a criminal conviction.
Daley, 36, spent five years in prison, from 2011 to 2016, for attempting to traffic drugs overseas, as well as for presenting a fake passport to immigration officials.
Human rights advocate Carla Gullotta pointed out that too often, persons who have gained qualifications behind bars get released only to be blocked by prospective employers. She pointed to the practice being more serious when a woman is put in the situation because it sets the tone for her to possibly be abused by men.
Having served her time constructively while behind bars by achieving passes in three Caribbean Secondary
Education Certificate subjects as well as attaining a certificate from HEART (Trust), Daley told the last week that the entity placed her in an unfortunate position, which could have been avoided had officials there requested the police record prior to her employment.
She explained that when her employer notified her along the way that the background check was required, she at no point objected because she was confident that she had been rehabilitated and was doing well in turning a new page in her life.
“Even when we start over, society naa gi we a chance... even we own weh live amongst us. I face it every day. People fear me just because mi did go prison. I got English, accounts and principles of business. In HEART, I did beaded jewellery. To get a job was very, very hard. However, I got the job and they laid me off three months after because the company lost the account. They called me back
Jamaica Observer in 2020 and rehired me.
“Everything was fine and I was working and I was doing nothing wrong. One day they called me and said they are going to pay for a police record. I didn’t have anything to hide. If I did I wouldn’t give them the okay to do the police record. A day after I did the police record they called me and said they would send me home on paid leave until they do some more background checks.
“I said alright and explained to the human resources manager that I actually did the crime, served the time and made myself a better person from the situation when I was much younger. I tried to explain to her that mistakes do happen, but don’t try punish someone for something they did years ago. I served the time. A few weeks after she called me and said the contract ended because the policy is not for anybody who was incarcerated. If that was the case, they should not have hired me in the first place. They said I must expunge the police record and then reapply,” she said, sharing that the employer suggested she reapply after expunging her record.
Despite her predicament though, Daley isn’t ruined. She shared with the
that she will be registering her beaded jewellery and fashion business and already harbours big plans for expansion.
“A me name money. Mi nuh siddung and wait fi somebody fi give me a job fi get something fi do. Me will get up and look something fi do. If mi get
Observer
Sunday