Scots jobs go to Philippines where pay is £50 a week

Published on Thursday 9 April 2009 22:23

CALL centre workers expressed their anger yesterday after plans were announced to move more than 400 T-Mobile customer service jobs from Scotland to the Philippines.

The mobile phone giant said yesterday that around 300 staff out of 500 working at a Telecom Service Centres (TSC) call centre in Larbert, near Falkirk, could lose their jobs.

And 118 jobs at a centre in Greenock, Renfrewshire, are at risk. Around 100 positions out of 600 are also threatened at a TSC call centre in Yorkshire.

The jobs will be transferred at the end of August to a centre in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, to be known as T-Mobile Dela Rosa.

However, call centre workers have accused T-Mobile of exploiting Filipino workers in a bid to secure a cheaper deal.

One in Larbert, who asked not to be named, yesterday said: "T-Mobile is offshoring its contract purely as a cost-saving exercise to take advantage of the exploitation of the workers in the Philippines."

The Philippines does not have a minimum wage rate. One job advertised yesterday on the online edition of the Manila-based Daily Tribune newspaper for customer service agents offered a monthly wage of 14,750 Philippines pesos (under 210 a month).

A TSC spokesman said the company had started a 90-day consultation period with staff. He added: "We have a number of potential new clients in the pipeline, and we will do all we can to try to secure this new business.

"Our Falkirk operation has been an integral part of the TSC network since it opened and we are determined to do all we can to keep our staff members there in employment."

Politicians have also voiced concerns over the job cuts. Falkirk Council leader Linda Gow said she was "devastated" by the extent of the losses.

Stuart McMillan, Nationalist MSP for the West of Scotland, has written to Jim Mather, Scotland's enterprise minister, urging him to attract other firms to the TSC call centre operations.

He said: "The T-Mobile centre in Greenock has been a good source of employment for the local community and to see these job losses is very disheartening, especially as it seems they are being moved to the Philippines.

"I am sure there will be a similar sense of shock and disappointment in Larbert."

A T-Mobile spokesman told The Scotsman that only the customer service role is being transferred to Manila.

TSC workers in Larbert and Greenock will still handle functions such as telemarketing of mobile broadband services and loyalty and retention activities, such as upgrades.

The spokesman added: "We cannot comment on the possible impact this will have on TSC staff.

"However, T-Mobile is working closely with TSC to mitigate and minimise the impact of this decision."

TSC, one of the UK's largest contact centre companies, was launched with seven staff on the island of Bute in 1996.

When it was re-awarded the 30 million T-Mobile contract in 2003, this was considered a major fillip for the Scottish call centre industry.

TSC's list of blue-chip clients has also included mobile phone companies One2One and Vodaphone, as well as the Royal Bank of Scotland.