Workers left devastated as 575 jobs lost in south-east

WORKERS at one of the south-east’s biggest employers have been left devastated at the announcement of 575 job losses with the closure of a telecommunications call centre.

Management at telephone giant Talk Talk in Waterford broke the news to staff at a meeting in the company’s city base yesterday, after workers were sent an email asking them to gather. There had been no previous indication of the cuts.

Employees were told that all roles were being moved to Britain and there was an option for up to 80 of them to move if their roles were required.

Questions were not allowed but a 30-day period of “consultation and transition” starts today and staff will be provided with “support” in advance of the closure. The call centre is not unionised but there are a number of employee representatives who will negotiate on behalf of the workers, while one-to-one meetings will be arranged.

The closure is a result of a 40% reduced dependency on call centres by Talk Talk, and a consolidation of its European operations in Britain. At the moment the Waterford base is its only non-sterling facility in Europe, with a number working in Asia.

Enterprise Minister Richard Bruton is expected to visit Waterford next week to meet with workers and management as well as other interested parties such as the city council, county council and state agencies.

Mr Bruton said yesterday he had spoken to the company’s chief executive at length and urged her to continue operations in Waterford, or to at least lengthen the consultation period.

“My thoughts are with the workers impacted by this announcement by Talk Talk, as well as their families,” he said.

Talk Talk’s group human resources director Nigel Sullivan said that, apart from the 80 positions which will be added to the company’s British operations, the rest of the jobs will go to their “outsourcing partners” in India, the Philippines and South Africa.

However, it was not primarily money-driven, he told the media. “Cost was not the primary driver for this at all, but it would be wrong of me to say it’s not a factor in business, of course it is. One of the factors is that, in Waterford alone, in Ireland alone, we’re exposed to the euro exchange rate.”

Yesterday’s staff meeting, originally scheduled for 3.30pm, was brought forward by more than an hour because news of the announcement was leaked to the media after briefings yesterday morning with the Government.

The company was “unhappy” that some of the staff found out about the news in advance of the meeting, Mr Sullivan said.

“We had to change our arrangements and brief them more quickly than we planned,” he said.

Local Fine Gael TD John Deasy said he had asked Mr Bruton to begin planning a strategy for the staff about to lose their jobs. “We need to act quickly,” Mr Deasy said. “It’s dreadful news for the people who are employed by Talk Talk and it’s a major blow to the city.”

He called on state agencies to make Waterford a priority for job creation. “For some time, myself and others have come to the conclusion that Waterford is not being marketed aggressively enough by the IDA and Enterprise Ireland. That situation is going to have to be addressed immediately. If we don’t act now, we’re going to be left behind.”

There was no local consultation about the closure prior to yesterday, he confirmed.

Yesterday’s news follows other job losses in the area in recent years, such as hundreds of redundancies at major employers Waterford Crystal and Bausch & Lomb.