Conduit to axe 250 temporary jobs in UK

Dublin-based call centre company Conduit is to axe 250 temporary staff drafted in to operate its UK directory service following the ending of the BT monopoly.

Most of the jobs are to go at the company’s centres in Cardiff, Wales and Welwyn in Hertfordshire, which will each lose 110 staff. Another 30 are to go from the centre in Gloucester.

A spokesperson for Conduit confirmed that the cuts were being made in additional staff who had been taken on with the full understanding that it was on a temporary basis.

The company also operates call centres in Dublin, Swansea, Biel and Vienna and provides services to clients in the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, Spain and Austria.

In 2002, Conduit handled over 100 million directory enquiry calls, and had expected to double that figure following deregulation of the enquiry directory market the UK and Spain.

However, since the BT monopoly of the public service ended some 20 companies have begun competing for a share of the UK’s deregulated directory enquiry call services.

Conduit, which said it had been a strategic decision to put in place over-capacity also blamed the cuts on difficulties in accurately predicting the level of calls that would be made to its 11 88 88 service when the old 192 service ceased.

The UK directory enquiry market is estimated to be worth up to £300 million-a-year.

(SP)