Yahoo Finance Npower Confirms 1,460 UK Job Losses
The big six energy firm npower has confirmed it is cutting 1,460 UK jobs, just days before its latest increase to household bills takes effect.
The supplier said a proposed restructuring was aimed at boosting its customer service activities and would result in the closure of three sites - with back office functions outsourced to India.
Npower - which was last week identified as the most complained-about energy firm among consumers - said that subject to consultation, the restructure would involve around 1,460 redundancies as more work is performed by outsourcers Capita (LSE: CPI.L - news) and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
It said that under the proposals, customers would continue to be served on the phone by people based in UK call centres and bringing teams together would reduce the number of sites npower owns.
Npower said that drawing on outsourced partners’ extra capacity to handle calls at peak times would mean call waiting times being kept to a minimum while a transfer of 540 npower staff to Capita would maintain some continuity for customers.
It confirmed the plans would mean the closure of offices in Stoke on Trent (BSE: TRENT.BO - news) , affecting around 550 employees.
An office in Oldbury was also to be shut with the loss of 400 staff while 430 staff at Rainton Bridge in Sunderland and another 80 in Leeds were also facing the axe.
The company said while npower’s call centre in Thornaby on Teesside would close, all roles there would be secure and relocate to Rainton.
Paul Massara, its chief executive, said "Today we have set out our proposed vision of how we would improve customer service, calling on the support of leading retail outsourcing partners.
"I understand that these changes would be incredibly hard for some of our employees and we'll be doing everything we can to support them over the next few months.
"This restructure is necessary if we are to deliver the levels of service our customers deserve.
"All calls would still be answered in the UK. We would have the flexibility to keep call waiting times down during busy periods, and continue to keep costs down so we can keep bills down."
The news follows a tough few weeks for energy firms amid a massive backlash against the latest bill increases - with npower's average rise of more than 10% due to take effect on Sunday December 1.
Npower has been in the headlines more than its major competitors in recent weeks.
It confirmed a week ago it was to offload 770,000 customers to Utility Warehouse in a deal that will raise it £218m and only this week said it was pulling out of the £4bn Atlantic Array windfarm project.
The decisions have raised speculation about whether its parent firm RWE sees a future in the UK, amid mounting pressure for stiffer regulation of the energy industry.
Reacting to confirmation of the job losses, Unison (KOSDAQ: 018000.KQ - news) claimed the decision would backfire on the company.
The union's Matt Lay said: "Npower are riding roughshod over their staff and customers.
"Customers have just had a 10.4% rise in their energy bills but clearly the company's thirst for profits knows no bounds.
"These so called savings will backfire on the company who have consistently let their customers and staff down by not investing enough in the workforce, technology or in the latest customer service techniques."
