WHEN it was announced in February that the BT call centre in Enniskillen was closing, it left employees devastated and heartbroken.
Tomorrow (Thursday) the doors will shut for good, bringing to an end eight months of gloom for the company’s 300 employees who provided support to EE mobile phone customers.
“The last day will be emotional, there’s no doubt about that. It sounds like a cliché but we were a big family,” a long-term employee told the Herald.
“There are people here who have worked together for 25-30 years. They have been through christenings, weddings and funerals together.
“It’s a small town and a small county. Many life-long friendships and relationships have been made here. It’s the people that you’ll miss the most. They made the place what it was.”
The majority of the staff have signed up for the Voluntary Paid Leavers (VPL) scheme offered by the BT Group. It worked out at a month’s wage for every year that the worker was at the company, capped at 12 months – a maximum of a year’s payout.
For those that have signed up for the VPL scheme, tomorrow will be their “last working day”, while December 31 will be their “last day of service”. For those that did not sign up for the scheme, tomorrow will be their “last day of service”.
Some staff members have agreed to travel to Belfast to work in BT’s office there, with the possibility of working one day a week from home to begin with.
The numbers going to work there are in single digits.
At a ‘Save Our Site’ public rally in Enniskillen in April, workers told how they had felt forced into accepting the offer due to the EE’s lack of clarity, which had left employees with many unanswered questions regarding the site’s future.
It is estimated that businesses in Enniskillen will now lose in the region of around £9 million in economic contribution due to the loss of jobs.
The remaining workers on site will now mark tomorrow’s official closure with a lunch and social event in the building.
“It was a great place to work. It was a great employer, with great terms and conditions. That’s why there’s such a great sense of loss at what happened,” the veteran employee said.
“If you were working for a crappy employer and got a payoff you’d be glad to go, but that wasn’t the case.
“That’s why it came as such a big shock back in February and people were left in a bad way about it.”
The BT Group confirmed that around 25 per cent of workers have already secured new roles elsewhere (as they have been released early), and it has been providing outplacement services to help others.
“We’re extremely grateful to current and former colleagues at our Enniskillen centre for their dedication and hard work over the years,” a BT Group spokesperson said.
“We have worked closely with the Communication Workers Union, and external organisations, to support impacted colleagues in finding alternative roles.”
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