Demon jobs on line at Glasgow tech support

'Business efficiency review'

By Tim Richardson • Get more from this author

Posted in Business, 6th April 2005 13:52 GMT

Free whitepaper – Out-of-box comparison between Dell, HP, and IBM blade servers

Demon Internet could be about to axe around 40 jobs in Scotland as it moves to close its tech support centre in Glasgow.

Staff were told of the proposals yesterday although insiders have told The Register that many workers walked out in disgust even before managers had finished the meeting.

"They told us they're making the lot of us redundant with many of the jobs going to India," said one insider. "Why? Because it's cheaper. After we're all gone the jobs will be split between Southend-on-Sea and Bangalore in India."

A spokeswoman for Demon - which is part of Scottish telco group Thus - confirmed that there could be redundancies but insisted that the decision to close the Glasgow call centre was just a "proposal" at the moment.

"It's part of a business efficiency review. We're proposing to consolidate our customer services operation in one facility in Southend," she said.

As for Demon's links with India (it began outsourcing some of its tech support to India last year, btw) the ISP insisted that only 4 per cent of traffic goes overseas.

Demon is currently discussing the proposals with employees although jobs could be lost if the ISP goes ahead with the plans, she said.

A week ago Thus delivered a cautious update and warned of tough trading conditions. ®