Orange is set to cut up to 300 call centre jobs in Bristol as part of a consolidation of its offices in the city.
Those affected will be offered a relocation package to move to its larger call centre operations in Plymouth or Darlington, the Times reported.
Staff who do not wish to move to Devon or the North East will be offered redundancy packages, Orange said.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) described the announcement as a “bombshell” and a “betrayal of a loyal and hard-working workforce”.
Orange closed the call centre for the day after delivering the news yesterday
A CWU spokeswoman said that redeployment to Plymouth or Tyneside was not a realistic option for most people. She said that many of the call centre staff had worked in the office for a long time, some since it was founded 12 years ago.
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Those workers affected will now enter a 90-day consultation period. The CWU said that redundancy packages offered by Orange were much higher than the statutory minimum.
Orange said the firm would do everything possible to avoid job cuts. A spokesman said: “We take pride in our people and what we proposed yesterday with the closure of the Keypoint site in Bristol is a change to our people’s work location.
“Five-hundred of the 800 people who currently work in the Keypoint building will be relocated to other buildings in the Bristol campus. The remaining 300 people – who work for our service department at Keypoint – will be offered another post and a relocation package to our service centres in Plymouth, North Tyneside and Darlington.
“We want to do as much as we possibly can to avoid anybody being made redundant and will be offering alternative work locations to those affected.”
