O2 set to clash with unions over transfer of 2,000 staff

[TrueBlueTerrier]

O2 set to clash with unions over transfer of 2,000 staff to Capita

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O2 is set to clash with unions on Tuesday when it announces the transfer of 2,000 staff to Capita as part of a major outsourcing deal.

An spokeswoman confirmed on Monday night that the UK telecoms giant would announce the move to investors when the stock market opens. She said no staff would be made redundant.

It is understood that the outsourcing deal will affect O2 staff in call centres. Capita already handles some contract customer services.
O2’s spokeswoman said the latest outsourcing was “part of a bigger story” but refused to provide more detail.

The move is likely to anger the Communications Workers Union (CWU), which this month warned it could call a strike if rumours of talks between O2 and Capita proved true.

The union passed an emergency motion to “oppose any move by O2 to outsource the majority of call centre work as it is not in the interests of the members we represent… up to, and including, industrial action.”

“We can reassure members that as far as the CWU is concerned, we will strongly defend any attack to directly employed jobs in O2,” said CWU assistant secretary Sally Bridge.

At the time O2 dismissed the rumours as “speculation”.

The cost-cutting effort will also raise further speculation that parent company Telefonica is preparing to spin off O2 in a flotation or private equity sale.

The Spanish group is saddled with a €51.2bn (£43.3bn) debt burden after a decade-long buying spree. It completed a €1.5bn initial public offering of its German mobile operator, O2 Deutschland, last year.

Telefonica is also badly exposed to the Southern Europe’s economic woes. This month it reported domestic revenues were down 16pc as it lost 275,000 customers and average bills shrank as a result of the long squeeze on SPanish consumer spending.

O2 contributed relatively strong results to the group, however. Its revenues were down 4.8pc to £1.37bn, mostly due to wholesale price cuts enforced by regulation.

O2’s mobile customer base was up 3pc on the year to 22.9 million. The shift of customers away from pre-paid tariffs to more valuable contracts continued, with 251,000 new subscribers, up 13pc on last year and the highest for the quarter in four years.

[fishtank]

O2 outsourcing decision a “betrayal” says CWU
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21st May 2013


Responding to Telefonica o2's announcement today (Tuesday) that it will outsource thousands of call centre jobs and make hundreds redundant from four sites - Bury, Glasgow, Leeds and Preston Brook (near Warrington) - to outsource giant Capita, the Communication Workers Union has branded the decision a "mistake" and "betrayal of staff who have built the company".

Up to 600 people will be made redundant and over 3,000 will transfer to Capita with no guarantees on their terms, conditions or job security. In total 3,670 jobs are affected. CWU has asked o2 to reconsider and is concerned that pay rates will fall to £7 an hour.

CWU has been told the work will transfer from 1st July 2013 giving just 41 days notice - the usual period for such a large number of jobs has been 90 days. Staff are due to be told this morning. O2 work was off-shored to South Africa last year where Capita has operations.

Andy Kerr, CWU deputy general secretary, said: "People are being dispensed with in a cold accountancy exercise designed to save money. This is a betrayal of the staff who have built this company and made it successful.


"We're gravely concerned about the future of these jobs as how will savings be made if not through attacks on jobs and terms and conditions? These are decent jobs paying around £3 an hour more than other Capita call centre staff. A cut in pay would be bad news for the local economy in these areas and a disaster for families.

"We have been presented with a fait accompli. There has not been and apparently won't be any meaningful negotiation or opportunity to influence the terms of transfer or negotiate on behalf of our members. We've got no guarantees on the stability of jobs and terms and conditions - all we've been told is that this will be up to Capita. That's not much to cling to.

"Given the gravity of this situation for our members we cannot rule out industrial action."

Rumours of outsourcing have plagued call centre staff for weeks. CWU wrote to CEO Ronan Dunn last week asking him to clear up speculation about outsourcing.

CWU understands that Capita will take charge of the four sites, either buying them or taking on existing leases. Some staff will remain working for o2 at these sites while many will transfer under TUPE arrangements. Staff transferring per site are:

Bury 644
Glasgow 827
Leeds 1016
Preston Brook 739

Last year o2 reversed its policy on offshore work, sending jobs to South Africa with Capita.

The average salary of current o2 call centre staff ranges between £17,800 and £23,000 or around £10 an hour. Call centre staff working for Capita at Dearne Valley on o2 contracts are paid on average £7 an hour.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

O2 questions CWU redundancy claims as union threatens action

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O2 has questioned a claim made by the Communication Workers Union (CWU) that there will be up to 600 redundancies as part of the mobile operator's customer services outsourcing deal with Capita.

Following Capita’s announcement that it had won a ten-year deal to manage and digitise O2’s customer services, the CWU reported that up to 600 O2 staff will be made redundant while over 3,000 will transfer to Capita.


An O2 spokesman said: "It’s worth noting that we’ve no idea where the CWU have got the figure of 600 jobs being made redundant.

"We are offering all those people affected by the change the opportunity to apply for Discretionary Voluntary Redundancy [DVR]. I’m not aware of the numbers as we simply don’t know what response we will get on that.

"There are no compulsory redundancies, so if no-one applied for DVR, then everyone would move across to Capita.”

O2 said 3,700 staff will transfer to Capita. Their transfer will see no change to where they work.

“Their terms and conditions (such as their salary) will be protected," said the spokesman.

"The deal also offers them a guarantee of job security for two years, something we alone as Telefonica UK could never offer. Capita is a trusted, proven and growing provider in customer contact management and will offer opportunities for those staff to continue to grow their career in customer service.”

The CWU told Computer Weekly that, in a meeting, it was told there would be between 500 and 600 voluntary redundancies.


Last month, when talk of O2’s plan to outsource call centres first emerged, the CWU said it would take action if stories about O2 transferring jobs to Capita, as part of an outsourcing deal, were true.

Andy Kerr, CWU deputy general secretary, said: "People are being dispensed with in a cold accountancy exercise designed to save money. This is a betrayal of the staff who have built this company and made it successful.

"We're gravely concerned about the future of these jobs as how will savings be made if not through attacks on jobs and terms and conditions? These are decent jobs paying around £3 an hour more than other Capita call centre staff. A cut in pay would be bad news for the local economy in these areas and a disaster for families.

"We have been presented with a fait accompli. There has not been – and apparently won't be – any meaningful negotiation or opportunity to influence the terms of transfer or negotiate on behalf of our members. We've got no guarantees on the stability of jobs and terms and conditions, all we've been told is that this will be up to Capita. That's not much to cling to.

"Given the gravity of this situation for our members we cannot rule out industrial action."

According to O2, as part of the agreement with Capita, it is investing £31m in its digital service channels including Web Chat, Social Media, Guru TV and MyO2 service which allows customers to check their account information and bills online.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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Capita to close O2 call centres and cut thousands of jobs

Britain's Capita Plc plans to close two major O2 call centres and cut thousands of jobs after winning a big contract last week to manage the mobile phone operator's customer services, a newspaper reported.

Capita, an outsourcing firm, won one of its biggest contracts ever with the 10-year $1.8 billion deal for Telefonica's unit.

The previously undisclosed details of the deal have enraged members of the Communication Workers Union, which is threatening strike action, the Telegraph said.

The company will close facilities in Bury, Greater Manchester and in Glasgow when it ends leases in 2015 and also slash jobs at call centres in Dearne Valley and Leeds, the Telegraph said citing documents seen by the paper.

Capita plans to eventually retain only around 1,370 of the 3,700 O2 staff due to be transferred at the start of the deal in July. To make up for that loss of headcount, it will expand a Capita call centre in Cape Town and increase customer support via web chats that would be managed from India.

The paper quoted an O2 spokeswoman as saying the plan was one scenario.

"It's all down to customer demand. We could put more people in those sites. Capita are a big, growing company and they may want to take more people on," it quoted the spokeswoman as saying.

It also quoted a Capita spokeswoman as declining to comment on the contents of the documents but adding the company would seek to redeploy staff made redundant.

O2 and Capita could not be reached by Reuters for comment outside regular business hours.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013 ... arding-bbc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;?

• Words are everything, with the power to inspire. All top leaders know that. Ronan Dunne, the chief executive of Telefonica O2 is a top leader. Dunne told Marketing magazine that it's important to "have a higher purpose", "always ask why", "believe in your values", "listen with humility" and always "bring people with you". All of which was read with interest by the 3,670 staff working for Dunne at sites in Bury, Glasgow, Leeds and Preston who now face redundancy, or having their services transferred over to outsourcing company Capita. The Communication Workers Union has been told the workers will transfer from 1 July, a notice period of barely 40 days. The union says the usual period for such momentous change has been 90 days. "This is a betrayal of the staff who have built this company and made it successful," says union man Andy Kerr. Bring people with you, enthused the CEO. Maybe he was visiting a jobcentre.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Documents reveal that O2 outsourcing will lead to thousands of redundancies

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O2's decision to outsource the management and digitization of its customer services to Capita will result in more job cuts than originally revealed.

According to an article on Telegraph.co.uk, which has seen an internal document, only 1,370 jobs will transfer to Capita rather than the 3,000 originally thought.

There is a great deal of uncertainty for staff. Earlier this month following Capita's announcement that it had won a ten-year deal to manage and digitise O2's customer services, the CWU reported that up to 600 O2 staff will be made redundant while over 3,000 will transfer to Capita.

An O2 spokesman told Computer Weekly earlier this month that O2 had no idea where the CWU have got the figure of 600 jobs being made redundant. So that was because it is actually more.

According to the Telegraph report customer service facilities in Bury, Greater Manchester, and Glasgow will be closed. Its 5,800 worldwide staff serving customers will be cut to fewer than 3,000 at the end of Capita's contract in 10 years. There could be an increasing proportion offshore. The telegraph article revealed that centres in India and South Africa will be expanded.