600 jobs go at BT call centre

BT is to close a telemarketing call centre in Bristol with the loss of 600 hundred jobs.

A spokesman for the telco maintained BT not be making any redundancies itself. Instead, he said all the job losses would be limited to agency staff employed in temporary contract positions by employment agencies, Kelly and Pertemps.

Around 200 BT employees and managers will be retrained, given jobs elsewhere or offered voluntary redundancy packages.

The work carried out by the Bristol call centre will be transferred to call centres in Doncaster and Warrington in the north of England.

Staff at BT's Whitefriars call centre in Bristol were due to be told about the job losses tomorrow.

The changes won't come into force until March next year.

Glynis Winestein of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) said: "We have secured a commitment from the company that our members who work for Kelly and Pertemps employment agencies will have jobs in BT at least until March 2001.

"We are still in early stages of our negotiations with all three employers to secure their employment prospects for the long term future, ideally in BT," said Winestein.

Still, there's nothing like having an early Christmas present...and this is nothing like it. ®