air miles staff fear axe again

FEARS
are rising of job losses at Air Miles' Crawley call centre after
news the company has proposed, for the second time
in three years, toclose the operation.
A total of 87 call centre and back-office staff, 50
of which arefull-time, are now in a
month-long consultation period, ending on April22. This follows a suggestion to relocate the centre to an existing
Birchwood call centre, near Warrington.
The Transport Salaried Staff's Association claims
it has been inundated bycalls from
Crawley staff who fear they could be made redundant.
TSSA negotiations officer Lorraine Byrne said the
move was made worsebecause many staff had
been through a similar consultation in 2001 whenthe idea of closure was first mooted.
She said: "As most of the workforce are
working mums with families, it isunlikely they
would want to relocate. Some of these individuals are facingthe possibility of redundancy all over again and I've had a great deal
ofcalls from outraged staff."
Byrne also claimed the redundancy package on the
cards was less generousthan in 2001.
But Air Miles insisted redundancy had yet to be
discussed and, at thisstage, the consultation
was being held to get alternative suggestions fromstaff.
A spokeswoman said: "We understand this is a
difficult time for staff butthese are simply
proposals and we hope there will be alternativesuggestions."
If the relocation goes ahead, 78 jobs would be
created at Birchwood, nineless than
currently employed in these functions in Crawley. With thismove, the company said it would save £3 million over three years and
improve efficiency.
There are 380 staff employed at Birchwood. There
are no plans to shut the
Crawley head office.