MOBILE phone giant Orange has issued an apology over fears that workers in a North East call centre faced relocating to the Philippines, blaming it on a "human resources error".
Union leaders had earlier voiced concern over planned changes to the centre saying that staff faced redundancy, lower pay or “unrealistic” relocation half-way around the world.
The company said it was in contact with the 40 employees involved and will be making it clear it was not proactively asking or expecting people to move to Manila.
“The information given out was not done officially and we apologise to those involved,” said an Orange spokesman.
“In the case of work transferring locations, the individuals do have the right to request moving with that work, and we have a duty of care to discuss the option.
“We recently proposed some operational changes to our nightshift customer services for the Orange brand. As part of a business process decision, overnight consumer calls will in future be handled by an existing outsource partner in Manila during their daytime hours.
“In accordance with UK employment law, we’ve completed a collective consultation and are now holding discussions on an individual basis. All 40 of our consumer nightshift team based in Darlington will be offered alternative roles in the UK, or redundancy terms.” The Communication Workers Union said it was worried about the impact of the move on jobs in the North East.
Union official Kevin Leetion said: “Night shift staff at Orange’s contact centre in Darlington are being told they face redundancy, lower pay or an unrealistic relocation half-way around the world.
“They are understandably concerned about their futures, and we are very worried about the long-term employment implications of this shift for jobs in the North East.
“Staff are also disappointed by the lack of consultation from the company on this change so we’re asking Orange to put employment issues at the top of their list. Upsetting staff is not good for morale or customer service so treating people well makes good business sense.”
Workers had an option of moving from nights to a day shift, but they would lose allowances worth up to £8,000, said the union.
There were initally concerns last year about the future of the 6,900 North East staff working for mobile phone giant Everything Everywhere when it was formed with the merger of Orange and T-Mobile.
But the company said that although it wanted to save £3.5bn by cutting 1,200 jobs nationwide – none of those would be in the North East. In 2009 Orange shed 900 jobs by closing its call centre in Peterlee, County Durham.
But the company said that all cuts of staff in overlapping roles would be back office and not in call centres.
It has 2,300 people in North Tyneside, 2,700 in Darlington and 900 in Doxford International Business Park in Sunderland.
