British Gas has insisted that morale remains high among its sales staff despite many being made redundant at the same time as a select group were being taken on a £300,000 trip to Tenerife.
The energy supplier rejected reports that its workers were furious over the timing of the luxury incentive trip.
It was reported that more than 100 sales reps were taken to the Canary isle while 60 sales managers were told they would lose their jobs with only the statutory minimum redundancy pay.
A British Gas spokesman told Personnel Today: “In common with many other companies, we run incentive programmes. The redundancies are unrelated to this and are part of a previously announced drive to reduce costs.”
The cuts are part of a continuing restructuring programme.
British Gas came out bottom of six energy suppliers in a league table of complaints released by watchdog Energywatch this week.
But the company’s spokesman pointed out that the gap between British Gas and the other providers had closed.
“We have made significant progress,” he said. “Complaints are down but there is lots of work still to be done.”
Training initiatives run by HR had improved the company’s customer service, he added. ENDS
