Around 200 TUI UK staff will be affected with the closure of a second call centre in less than a year as the impact of internet bookings takes its toll on jobs.
The Thomson parent company is to shut its Bury call centre at the end of July, following the closure of its Glasgow facility last December.
The 200 staff employed at the call centre on Castlebrook Business Park in Pilsworth, handle bookings for Skydeals and The First Resort.
The company said it will enter into a 90-day consultation period with affected staff in due course.
The Bury call centre closure is the latest in a series of job cuts by the company since it announced that 2,000 staff would be axed almost exactly two years ago.
With sustained growth of people preferring to book on the internet, rather than the telephone, Thomson is continuing to evaluate how it resources its business, a statement said.
Since the closure of the Glasgow call centre in December 2006, the roll out of the Virtual Call Centre has proved an effective solution to reduce costs enabling Thomson retail staff to take telephone bookings and enquiries, the company added.
TUI UK sales director Derek Jones said: “In December 2006 we rolled out the Virtual Call Centre to our high street shops – this has been very successful.
“The demand for booking on the phone is declining and internet bookings continue to grow so we have to rethink how we resource our business. It is regrettable that we have had to put forward this proposal.”
by Phil Davies
