Vodafone moves Irish call centres

outsource its debt collections to a third-party, reports the Wireless Federation.

A total of 139 jobs will be lost at a local outsourced call centre with a potential 45 further job losses at Vodafone itself.

According to Vodafone, some of its mobile data services would move to Vodafone Egypt, where the company has an existing agreement to use the Egyptian subsidiary for outsourced work.

In addition, the Vodafone mobile back office will move this activity to India from October. A new company will be hired to handle debt collections in Ireland.

The Irish Times reveals that the Communications Workers Union (CWU) has described Vodafone's plans as “callous and insensitive”. It also called on the Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte to intervene.

“The entire focus of the Government's economic recovery policy is on job creation and retention,” said Terry Delany, deputy general secretary of the CWU.

“The quid pro quo must be a commitment from large companies to support jobs in Ireland on the back of the large profits and favourable tax rates they enjoy.”

However, Vodafone has made it clear that the affected Vodafone staff will be offered the opportunity to transfer to alternative roles within the company, Voluntary redundancy packages and transfers to the third party debt collection service will also be offered, states Contact Centres