Trained call centre in Campbeltown offers capacity
Campbelltown based call centre operators Contact 4 called its 24 staff to a meeting on Friday at 11am to tell them they were out of work. By 11.15am the desks and computers were being loaded onto lorries, while the stunned staff cleared out their personal possessions from the custom-built centre at Snipefield.
Campbeltown has suffered the closure of the town’s Contact4 call centre with the loss of 24 jobs. Contact4 has other centres in (300 seats) Paisley, Glasgow, and (100 seats respectively) in Dingle, Co. Kerry. Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, and Achill Co. Mayo, Ireland.
Caroline Reynolds, spokeswoman for the company, is reported as saying that "Contact4 Campbeltown is to close its Campbeltown call centre with immediate effect due to continuing difficult trading conditions in the financial sub prime sector. All 24 employees have been offered positions at Contact4 in Paisley, Glasgow.
"We are very disappointed that we have had to make this very difficult decision, but the sub prime market is changing daily and we had to react to protect our business."
Less than two months ago in November, the centre’s manager, Jonathon MacLean-Lambie, had reassured staff that the centre’s future was secure.
Workers note that removal to Paisley from Campbeltown was not easy for staff with families, and that the Centre staff had been working from different data bases compared to Contact4's other centres.
The call centre premises, built by Highlands and Islands Enterprise to attract lucrative call centre work to Kintyre was empty for a number of years before Contact4 leased the building. Councillor Donald Kelly who worked hard and long to get an employer in the building will ask for every effort to recoup any grant aid given to the firm.
Alan Reid MP for Argyll and Bute has contacted the Scottish Government and Highlands and Island Enterprise and urged them to make every effort to bring more work to Campbeltown. With a workforce trained in call centre work, the most obvious solution is to attract another call centre company to the town. Urgent action is necessary before people are forced to leave the area to find work.
Source: http://www.campbeltowncourier.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/4432/Shock_as_call_centre_closes.html