Thus - the Scottish telco behind the Demon internet brand - could be about to axe 60 jobs at its Southend office and export the work to India.

Staff were told of the proposals late yesterday afternoon as the telco - which recently made a failed bid to acquire rival Energis - continues to introduce measures to drive down costs.

Confirming the job cut proposals the company told us in a statement: "As part of our continued business efficiency review, we are proposing to focus our Customer Service Centre at Southend on supporting higher value services and business customers while moving support for Demon Home/Demon Home Office and our commodity level Business broadband portfolio offshore.

"This will enable more efficient management of our customer services in future, with an increased focus on supporting higher value services whilst also reducing levels of operating expenditure.

"By making these changes, we will improve our ability to support our customers as they migrate to next generation services.

"We are consulting with employees on this proposal," it said.

These are difficult times for workers at Thus as the telco continues to be squeezed by what it describes as difficult trading conditions.

Three weeks ago The Register reported how 20 IT workers at the Scottish telco were told their jobs are to be transferred to IT services outfit Computacenter. ®

Related stories

• Demon chases overdue accounts (4 April 2006)
• Demon 'forgets' to bill customer for four years (31 March 2006)
• Thus to axe 280 jobs (2 February 2006)
• Third of employers feel pressured to offshore (30 January 2006)
• Demon scores broadband ton (21 November 2005)
• Demon broadband disquiet grows (30 September 2005)
• Thus looks to spend and grow (30 September 2005)
• Energis rubbishes Thus bid (15 August 2005)
• Thus throws hat into Energis ring (15 August 2005)
• Thus TUPEs IT jobs to Computacenter (10 August 2005)
• Thus upbeat about future (27 July 2005)
• Thus still 'cautious' on tough market conditions (23 May 2005)
• Demon jobs on line at Glasgow tech support (6 April 2005)