More than 100 jobs go at Virgin base
More than 100 workers will lose their jobs this month, when Virgin Media's Brierley Hill-based customer service team members hang up their phones for good.
More than 100 workers will lose their jobs this month, when Virgin Media's Brierley Hill-based customer service team members hang up their phones for good.
In May the firm announced plans to shut the Waterfront-based department – axing 252 customer service jobs – and the proposal was put out to consultation.
The first wave of 143 staff left the office during August and Virgin Media has today announced that the remaining 109 workers will leave their roles on October 23.
The department will then officially close and customer service operations will be moved to four other sites in the UK, including existing offices in Scotland, Sheffield and Manchester.
About 21 per cent of the 319 service staff – 67 workers – have already been found alternative jobs in the office. The remaining 252 members of staff have either taken redundancy or found employment elsewhere.
An additional 80 people were made redundant from the Dudley office in July when the firm closed its telesales department, which was also based in the same Waterfront offices.
A 90-day consultation into shutting the telesales department was launched in March and 30 per cent of the workforce were offered alternative positions.
Both the departmental closures form part of a wider plan to make Brierley Hill the company's national centre for supporting its engineers and this move has created 200 jobs at the Waterfront.
In addition a technical training facility has been set up at the site to train 45 technicians a week from all over the UK.
Virgin Media spokesman Rebecca Burke said: "We are pleased that we have been able to re-deploy 21 per cent of our staff in a number of different roles in Dudley.
"In May we announced the proposal to close our customer service department in Dudley, as well as make Dudley the centre for Virgin Media's field support function.
"Since May we have created 200 jobs in Dudley as the site has become Virgin Media's national centre for Field Support. Plans are now underway to create a technical training facility which will bring 45 delegates a week into Dudley and the branch will remain a critical part of our operation."
The new technical training centre is scheduled to open on January 1.
There was a previous blow for Brierley Hill's Waterfront in December 2008 when on-line credit company Egg revealed it was planning to shut its office at the business park, shedding 99 jobs.
And there were other blows to Dudley's workforce earlier this year when Servosteel, which employs 97 people at a plant near Russells Hall Hospital, introduced a four-day week.
A three-day week was also bought in for more than 150 workers at Brockmoor Foundry, in The Leys, Brierley Hill.
In January hydraulics parts firm Eaton Automotive Fluid, in Thorns Road, Brierley Hill, confirmed that 84 staff were being made redundant.
