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NTL to create up to 70 jobs
(The Northern Echo Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) CABLE company NTL is creating up to 70 jobs at its Teesside call centre despite making thousands of staff cutbacks nationwide, The Northern Echo learned yesterday.
The firm is recruiting customer relations staff at its contact centre on the Preston Farm Industrial Estate, in Stockton.
The 70 posts will boost the total workforce at the site to about 370.
The announcement came four months after NTL said it planned to cut 6,000 jobs nationwide by the end of next year, following its merger with rival Telewest.
The first round of cutbacks in May included the outsourcing of 54 jobs within NTL's fault management division at Stockton, with workers' contracts transferred to IBM in Swansea or Liverpool.
The initial restructuring affected a total of 1,535 staff nationwide, including 690 in Liverpool and 791 in Swansea, who were also transferred to IBM.
An NTL spokeswoman yesterday could not give any details about when the remaining 4,465 staff cutbacks are expected to be announced.
However, she said the situation in Stockton was "positive".
"We are recruiting in Stockton for customer relations roles. There are about 300 people working on the site, so the new jobs will take the figure to 370, " she said.
"There were 54 people affected by the outsourcing earlier this year. They were offered jobs in customer relations, but the roles they were working on were a lot different.
"One person transferred to Swansea, and one to Liverpool, and a couple have accepted roles in customer relations."
NTL's restructuring programme forms part of plans to make cost savings of GBP250m by the end of next year following its takeover of Telewest for $6bn (GBP3.2bn) in March.
More than a third of NTL's 17,000 staff will be affected by the changes, with about 3,000 posts cut and 3,000 outsourced to firms such as IBM.
In May, NTL said it hoped that a large number of the cuts would be achieved through natural wastage, voluntary severance and a reduction in part-time staff.
At the time, it said about 80 per cent of the changes should take place by the end of this year.
Yesterday, NTL said:
"There has not been any further announcement since May and no impact at Teesside."
Copyright 2006 The Northern Echo. Source: Financial Times Information Limited - Europe Intelligence Wire.
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