British Gas call centre staff wait to find where the jobs axe will fall

Nov 24 2011 by Alastair McNeill, Hamilton Advertiser

CUSTOMER service staff at British Gas offices in Uddingston are on tenterhooks following last week’s announcement of job losses.

The company are to cut 850 jobs across the UK service and repair business.

British Gas employ 1128 contact service call centre staff at Murdoch House in Bothwell Road, Uddingston, out of a total staff of 1300.

There are four other service and repair offices at Stockport, Leicester, Oldbury and Liverpool.

Uddingston customer service and repair staff were informed of the planned job losses last Wednesday.

One shocked employee said: “Every customer service team member was taken in for a meeting on Wednesday and told of the 90-day consultation period.

“British Gas make millions of pounds in profits each year, but insist they have to make these job cuts.

“The atmosphere in work last week was not pleasant at all. People here are fearing for their futures.

“It is going to be a long wait between now and February when we'll find out who has a job and who hasn't.”

A British Gas spokeswoman said this week it was too early to provide specific numbers of job losses at each of their service and repair sites.

She commented: “Household budgets are stretched, customers are looking for maximum value for money.

“If we are going to remain competitive and offer the best prices for our customers, we need to reduce costs.

“We have, therefore, reviewed resource levels in our services business and are now proposing a reduction of around 850 roles.

“We are focusing on management and support roles. We will work to ensure continued high levels of service for our customers.

“We will now move into a consultation period to discuss these proposals in more detail with our people and their representatives.”

JOBS BLOW: customer service and repair staff at Uddingston’s British Gas offices will learn in February where the jobs’ axe will fall.

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