TalkTalk-Tiscali merger proves fraught
Axe falls
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Tiscali staff have turned to their lawyers after managers from TalkTalk arrived wielding the axe.
Tiscali became part of the Carphone Warehouse group back in May, but the expected cuts only began this month.
With very little warning, a human resources team put most if not all of Tiscali's technical managers at risk of redundancy. The move and the way it was done has sparked serious resentment.
Such is the upset among Tiscali's technical managers in Milton Keynes and Stevenage at how their new owners are handling the cuts, that at least 26 have taken legal advice for potential unfair and constructive dismissal claims.
Several who have spoken to The Register claim proper redundancy procedures have not been followed and talked of a "bullying" attitude from the incoming management. Many have been told to report to junior staff within TalkTalk during the reorganisation and allege a deliberate lack of communciation from senior ranks.
Asked for the firm's comment on the ongoing ructions, a TalkTalk spokesman said: "We are surprised by the comments given we have received no formal claims and believe we followed our legal obligations."
Carphone Warehouse paid £236m for Tiscali, which had teetered on the brink of administration for several months. It's planned that once it has integrated the acquisition, TalkTalk will be spun off as a separate company. ®
COMMENTS
Of course...
...when they say 'manager' they actually mean a 3rd/4th line technical specialist (promoted to management grade because they have nowhere else to go) with years of specialised experience that goes back to the founding of Tiscali, not some generic paper-pushing clerical manager-type.
Tiscali's been top-heavy with those guys for years now, and they've kept their places due to their obscure knowledge of the in's and out's of the Tiscali network, but now since the merger we'll be migrating onto Talk-Talk's network, not keeping our own, and therefore all of a sudden their formerly cosy positions are 'at risk'.
No real surprise, and it won't affect any of the guys on the ground except perhaps our NOC teams since Talk-Talk already have a working NOC.
Anon because I work there. Obviously.
Well, I never saw THIS coming... ha!!
Been there... Suffered about 18 months of redundancy from Pipex/Tiscali fuster-cluck (do your own syllable-swap there).
There's a lot of people there who will have been doing their best for myriad of punters for years (after various acquisitions) and they'll be alright for a while but for the upper-levels of management, who 're-aligned' the workforce out to India/Manilla and who are now having the speak to HR drones like everyone else did, no sympathy...
Everyone knew it was coming.
If I worked at Tiscali I would have jumped ship or started looking for another job ages ago. The company has been failing for ages and if a company fails the managers deserve to lose their jobs.
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