HALIFAX – Bell Aliant will consolidate its customer contact centre operations by amalgamating its 16 call centres in to five locations by early next Spring.
The five contact centres will be located in Charlottetown, Halifax, Moncton, Saint John, and Mount Pearl, and will be implemented by mid-April 2010. Current contact centres in Atlantic Canada with less than fifty employees are being folded in to the new centres to allow for “a more focused and effective operating model”.
“It is difficult for any organization, let alone one of our size and scale, to efficiently operate that many centres, particularly the smaller ones,” said president and CEO Karen Sheriff, in the announcement. “It is not only challenging to provide appropriate management, coaching and training in each location but it is no longer a sustainable or effective model. That is why our peers and competitors, relative to their size, operate with far fewer centres than we do.”
Approximately 200 permanent, unionized employees currently based in the smaller centers will be offered roles within one of the five remaining locations. But the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP), who represents unionized Bell Aliant workers, said that it’s members are “shocked, disappointed, and have serious concerns” about the plan.
“These members have been presented with a cruel choice – relocate and give up your home and community or give up your job," said Penny Fawcett, chair of the Atlantic Communication Council of the CEP, in a statement. "This is devastating for people with family obligations and commitments, who are not close to retirement, and who have strong ties to where they live."
