Staff at a call centre in Derby say hundreds of jobs are under threat of redundancy. DerbyshireLive has reported that workers at the Firstsource site in Riverside Road, Pride Park, have been told a high number of jobs are set to go.
The news site said the announcement was made after major client Sky said it was cutting its phone-based customer service requirements to focus on a digital system – with the rest of its phone staff now planned to be sourced internally or from India.
Indian-owned firm Firstsource employs around 600 people in Derby and it is understood that despite the changes the business will still be working with Sky. Around half of the Derby team – the people take calls from Sky customers – are understood to be affected.
Last week BusinessLive reported that around 500 Firstsource jobs could also be at risk in Northern Ireland.
In a statement Firstsource said: “Firstsource has commenced a redundancy consultation process with a number of colleagues at its Derby site.
“The changing priorities of one of our clients, Sky, means they are making proposals to adjust services currently being delivered across both sites.
“Staff impacted have been informed last week and as a responsible employer, we are working closely to support them throughout this process.
“Firstsource remains committed to Derby as we continue to deliver a range of services for our outsourcing clients.”
DerbyshireLive said Derby staff told them they were called into an “urgent” meeting on Thursday, May 25, and were told that Sky's inbound operations were to close down completely. They said they were now in a 45-day consultation period, which will end in mid-July.