Call centre hope on jobs

Jul 21 2007 by Tony McDonough, Liverpool Daily Post

HOPES are high among 600 workers at the Skelmersdale call centre of Co-operative Financial Services that they will escape the jobs cull announced yesterday.

Manchester-based CFS said it was reorganising its operational structure in a move that would lead to 1,000 job losses, about 10% of its workforce, and save the group around £100m.

In a statement, the group, which includes online bank Smile, the Co-operative Bank and Co-operative Insurance, said the losses were “regrettably unavoidable”.

The job cuts will be most keenly felt in the North West, as CFS has bases in Manchester, Stockport, Skelmersdale and Salford.

However, CFS, which has six million customers, said that customer-facing roles would not be affected by the job cuts and reaffirmed its commitment not to move any of its customer-facing sales and service staff off-shore.

This news will be welcomed by the staff in Skelmersdale, the majority of whom are in customer-facing roles.

The group, known for its ethical business and investment policies, has 90 retail banking and 11 corporate banking branches across the UK. Trade union Unite described the move as a “devastating blow” for CFS staff.

National officer David Fleming said: “Unite will be taking a zero tolerance approach to compulsory redundancies and we have high expectations that CFS will enter into meaningful consultations with the unions.”

However, CFS chief executive David Anderson said compulsory job losses were “inevitable”.

He added: “Decisions taken which lead to a reduction in colleague numbers are not taken lightly and consultation is under way with all the relevant trades unions. CFS will aim to achieve some of these changes through voluntary means however the scale of the reorganisation will mean that compulsory redundancies are inevitable.”

CFS cut more than 2,000 jobs under a previous round of redundancies in 2004.

Yesterday’s announcement comes as the business faces increased competition in the financial services market from online rivals and supermarkets.

Last year, CFS saw pre-tax profits fall by more than 13% to £146.2m as the business came under “intense” competition and also suffered from increases in bad debts, personal insolvencies and investment costs.

tonymcdonough