250 JOBS TO GO IN CALL CENTRE CLOSURE PLAN

By Danny Kemp, PA News Post Office parent company Consignia today confirmed it will shed up to 250
jobs as part of a massive call centre closure plan. The organisation is to shut 59 of its 70 sites across the country, which
handle around a million customer inquiries a month. It will replace them with 11 “super centres” and claims the changes will
boost efficiency and improve service. Union leaders have pledged to resist any compulsory redundancies among the
4,500 employees concerned. But the company said it would offer transfers, alternative jobs and voluntary
redundancies. The new centres will be at Bristol, Plymouth, Barnsley, Doxford in
Northumberland, Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds, Stoke-on-Trent, Colchester, Bangor
in Wales and Donegall Quay in Belfast. A Consignia spokeswoman said: “There are likely to be around 250 jobs lost
overall once the programme has finished. “But the priority is to find people another job in another centre or across
the organisation so we keep their expertise and experience. “Staff at an office which is shutting will initially be offered a job at
another centre, to relocate them. “If that is not possible or the individual employee doesn’t want that option,
we will try and find them another job within Consignia. “If that fails then the next option would be to offer them voluntary
redundancy. Only as a last resort would we turn to compulsory redundancies.” The new centres will cover all calls for Parcelforce Worldwide, Royal Mail and
the Post Office, which at the moment are handled separately. The £30 million plan, which has already begun and will run to 2002 and
possibly beyond, will replace the current sprawling network of call centres. mflPA NEWS, 13th August 2001