Hundreds of staff at a Thomson and First Choice customer centre in Coventry are at risk of redundancy after the operator announced it is to close its office there by December 2015.
A consultation process has been entered into with staff at the offices as proposals for the future operating model of its contact centres were announced.
Coventry based staff may be offered the chance to move to the company’s Swansea site, while other contact roles will move to the head office in Luton, with a small remainder outsourced to a specialist provider.
The majority of the non-customer contact roles based in Coventry would also move to the head office in Luton.
Tui UK and Ireland said in a statement: “Unfortunately this means that all the impacted roles are being put at risk of redundancy and the management team will enter a 45 day consultation process on the proposals, starting on October 2, with impacted teams and individuals.
“The proposed changes are not a reflection on the great work done serving customers by all the teams based in Coventry.
They are the result of many months of research, consideration and discussion about the future of how Tui UK & Ireland communicates with its customers and the conclusions have not been reached lightly.”
The company declined to comment on how many jobs would be effected but over 600 people are understood to work there according to Tui’s own website.
John McEwan, former managing director of Lunn Poly and then retail director of Tui UK, said the news would hit staff hard.
“There are some good staff in Coventry. I am sure Tui has very sound reasons for its decision but it doesn’t ignore the fact that you will have some very qualified staff there and it will be difficult for them to relocate to Swansea, or Luton.
“Fortunately in Coventry they are in a catchment area that is rich in companies looking for these types of skills.”