Virgin Media UK to Close Swansea Call Centre and Cut 772 Local Jobs

Cable broadband operator Virgin Media has announced that it is to cut 772 jobs (including 220 roles from SITEL) by shutting its call centre in Llansamlet (Swansea, Wales), which is expected to complete by the autumn of 2019. The good news is that most of these will be shifted to elsewhere in the UK.

Various reports suggest that some 470 of Virgin Media’s own staff will be transferred to the company’s Manchester base, while their on-site sub-contractor (SITEL) employees will be transferred to Glasgow. Naturally many will find it difficult to relocate to such distant locations.

Tom Mockridge, CEO of Virgin Media, said:

“Last year Virgin Media began a three year property investment programme to create fewer, higher quality work places to better support our people, our business and growing customer base. As part of this we intend to create four regional customer operations hubs while increasing the flexibility of our customer services resources.

As a consequence, we have proposed the customer operations roles currently based at our Swansea site will transfer to either one of our partners or to a soon to be refurbished site at Wythenshawe near Manchester. The majority of the remaining roles will relocate to alternative sites across the UK.

We are now working with and supporting all employees who have been asked to relocate, who may be in a role at risk of redundancy or who may wish to take another role with Virgin Media or one of our partners.”

Suffice to say that the news has not gone down well in Swansea, where Rob Stewart (Council Leader) said: “Along with our colleagues in Welsh Government we will be seeking an urgent meeting with the company to see what can be can be done to retain these jobs in Swansea. We hope Virgin Media will work with us because the company owes the people of Swansea a debt and therefore a legacy.”