UK : NTL to axe loads of jobs, more call centres bangalored

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UK : NTL to axe loads of jobs, more call centres bangalored

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May 7, 2006 at 12:19 pm

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General Lighting

@general-lighting

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And they don’t even have enough resources to look after their infrastructure or keep their existing customers!

They are already passing overspill calls to India anyway…

NTL ‘to axe 4,000 jobs’
NTL will this week announce that 4,000 jobs in the UK are to be lost following its merger with cable rival Telewest.Head office roles will be cut and call centre jobs transferred overseas in a shake-up that affects one in every four members of staff, according to the Independent on Sunday.
Details are expected when NTL publishes its first-quarter results on Tuesday, but there will be little impact on Virgin Mobile which is being run as a separate business following its £962 million purchase last month.
The report said NTL plans to close the Woking head office of Telewest and some of the staff will be moved to its own base at Hook in Hampshire. It is also understood that most of the combined group’s call centres will be outsourced, with some of the jobs going to offshore centres in India. A spokeswoman for NTL declined to respond to the report, saying the company did not comment on rumour or speculation.
NTL has radically reshaped itself since emerging from bankruptcy protection in 2003, beginning with a major financial overhaul to generate new capital and reduce interest repayment charges.
It organised a rights issue to raise £824.3 million and trimmed its workforce, with 1,500 call centre staff losing their jobs in cuts announced two years ago.
NTL and Telewest employ around 17,000 workers in the UK and the Independent on Sunday said that cuts in marketing operations are also expected on Tuesday in addition to the job losses in call centres and head offices.
The news will be a fresh blow to British industry after mobile phone giant Orange announced plans last week to axe up to 2,000 jobs under a review of its operational costs. Rival telecoms firm Cable & Wireless warned in February that it may reduce its 5,500-strong UK workforce to between 2,500 and 3,500 over the next four to five years.
It is thought that the full integration of NTL and Telewest will take up to 18 months so some of the losses will not be immediate. Voluntary redundancies and vacant positions not being filled will make up some of the cuts.
NTL merged with Telewest in March to create the largest provider of residential broadband services in the UK. It has indicated that savings will total £250 million over the next three years. The tie-up with Telewest was followed by the acquisition of Virgin Mobile, making it the first operator with a ‘fourplay’ offer of pay TV, internet access, fixed-line telephony and mobile calls.
May 7, 2006 at 3:58 pm

#859525
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globalloon

@globalloon

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this is the nature of modern capitalism… from the writings of David ricardo at the start of the 19th century, trade between nations has been considered an esential part of capitalism

at that time the assumption that free-trade of goods was of advantage to all countries was in the assumption that capital and labour stayed at home

but now we are seeing large scale trade of capital; land and resources from many countries sold to a rich elite who live in handful of tax-free zones. large scale trading of labour; when one coutry’s workforce unionises, companies shift the labour to where conditions are poorer. the same thing happens when steps are taken to mimise environmental damage by one nation.

from a sustainability perspctive, this is becoming more and more problematic

we don’t have time to wait for any big-picture ideological sucessor… whether we like it or not, sustainability must be delivered within the capitalist framework

nothing good ever came from people asking politicans for it… we must fight for it…
May 7, 2006 at 5:17 pm

#859524
6

General Lighting

@general-lighting

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its also the “chickens coming home to roost” of colonialism….

Britain colonised lots of countries and made them speak English – because it was so successful at spreading this language worldwide as an international language of communications and business it makes outsourcing far easier for the UK and USA.

at the same time we the consumer demand immediate delivery and access to services and cheaper prices.

I don’t think call centres are going to go away as the better ones do have advantages such as extended opening hours for business; but there needs to be solidarity between the workers in the different countries.

Also the call centre jobs do pay way more than anything else in some of the Eastern countries. However the workers there are not entirely powerless as it takes a substantial investment to train new staff (wherever they may be) which is lost if a company moves out to a cheaper country so its not always a saving.

I get the impression from recent conversations with BT staff (at least from monitoring the accents I hear) that the unions have managed to argue in both countries for overtime rates in such a way that has meant that work has remained in both the UK and India but not as many people have to work at unearthly hours of the day and night in their own country.

Bangalore is just as ropey as Durham and Glasglow late at night and isn’t a safe place to be walking about on your own.

There are gains as well, a young lad from India was posting on here recently and has his own forum; this wouldn’t have happened without the investment in telecoms and IT that outsourcing has brought to Asia.

India and UK are 8 hours apart so an equitable deal could easily be struck between the companies and workers of each country which also benefits the consumers by extending the business day – OTOH consumers need to be more aware of how well their suppliers are run.

I have always believed anyway a badly run organisation with badly treated customer service staff eventually fails in the market as they go into “siege mentality” where the customer becomes the enemy..
May 7, 2006 at 7:15 pm

#859526
1

globalloon

@globalloon

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General Lighting wrote:

at the same time we the consumer demand immediate delivery and access to services and cheaper prices.

i think as more and more people lose their jobs, they may realise that paying a little more for a product that has been produced under fair conditions, with smaller ecomonic impact is the only viable form of capitalism

but by then it may be too late
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