This is a stunning blow to many thousands of workers employed by one of the big UK telecoms companies.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=408917&in_page_id=2Telecoms giant NTL announced plans today to cut its workforce by 6000 following its recent merger with rival Telewest and the takeover of Virgin Mobile.
Chief executive Stephen Burch said that more than a third of its 17000 staff will be affected by the upheaval, which is likely to involve up to 1000 compulsory redundancies. NTL said a number of jobs will be transferred under outsourcing agreements, including 1500 to IBM.
Amicus national officer Peter Skyte said: 'This is a devastating blow for thousands of employees across the whole country. There is no corporate social responsibility in this announcement and it is difficult to fathom how cutting so many UK jobs will be good for NTL's customers.'
Gerry Morrissey, assistant general secretary of Bectu, said his union will now press for a campaign to highlight the number of jobs being outsourced to India.
'Firms which are doing this don't deserve the support of the British public,' he said.
Several of the group's eight call centres and the Telewest headquarters in Woking, Surrey, are likely to close with many of the call-centre jobs moving to India or South Africa.
I see this going down as well as a poison apple with the workforce, I cant see the customers enjoying the experience either as its becoming a joke in some parts of the UK about actually speaking to someone who can understand english when you require assistance from your ISP, this move will not help matters.
It seems profits are prioritised higher than social responsibility as we can see, and the cure for this is usually to boycott selfish organisations and remind them that respectable practices and a good name are priceless in the modern competitive market.
