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Dublin: 10 °C Thursday 23 May, 2013

Vodafone ‘will continue to engage’ with union over customer care jobs

CWU members yesterday voted in favour of industrial action over Vodafone’s plans to move certain functions to Newry.

Image: Anthony Devlin/PA Archive/Press Association Images

VODAFONA SAYS IT IS “disappointed” that some of its employees have decided to take industrial action in a dispute over the company’s plans to outsource its mobile customer care operation to a new third party.

Rigney Dolphin is currently involved in Vodafone’s customer care service in the Republic, but this service is being transferred to Teleperformance. The move affects 26 jobs at Vodafone and 290 with Rigney Dolphin, according to Vodafone.

“Every employee affected can transfer to Teleperformance under their existing terms and conditions,” Vodafone said in a statement. “Vodafone acknowledge that many roles affected may relocate to Newry, where Teleperformance is headquartered. The company also recognises that some employees may not be in a position to relocate in these circumstances.”

Yesterday, Vodafone workers who are members of the Communications Workers’ Union voted in favour of industrial action. The union said that 262 members voted for and just two against the action.

The union has accused Vodafone of failing to address employee concerns in a clear and forthright manner, while CWU deputy general secretary Terry Delaney accused the company of being “arrogant, callous and deceitful in their treatment of workers”.

He said the company had shown little consideration for employees in terms of the impact of the company’s decision on their livelihoods and the future of their families.

In a statement this morning, Vodafone says it is still engaged in consultations with workers and with the CWU. “Specifics for individuals impacted by the move to Teleperformance forms an essential part of the consultation and any solutions for those who will not relocate to Newry is being discussed through the process,” it said.

“Vodafone will continue to engage with the CWU and do everything possible to ensure that people are kept informed of developments and projected timelines.”

Vodafone currently employs over 1,200 people in Ireland; in January, around 130 people were laid off when their roles were outsourced to Egypt and India.

Vodafone staff vote in favour of industrial action >

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Comments (15 Comments)

  • Vodafone say ” they are disappointed some of their workers voted to strike ” only 2 people voted not to strike !!!!!! for a company in the communications industry they certainly can’t communicate the truth. there is no guarantee that the workers will retain their terms and conditions of work if they move to newry UK as Vodafone ie will not guarantee this, they will then be working for Vodafone UK who will deal with any disputes the workers have, the workers are been asked to transfer to a different jurisdiction and will be subject to the wage structure of that country

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  • Vodafone make huge profits in Ireland and in my opinion they have a moral obligation to contribute to the economy by not transferring jobs to other countries. Aviva did the same and their customer service is rubbish. Their customer services representatives don’t know what I’m saying and I don’t understand them. It’s time the government linked job retention and creation to the profits and benefits companies receive from operating in the Irish economy.

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  • Vodafone say they are “disappointed” that some of its employees have decided to take industrial action, what are they on, these employees could lose 300 jobs. life in a mess, if they do outsource these jobs, my account with Vodafone will terminate for sure. They get over €100 a month from me, i urge anyone that has an account with Vodafone to do the same. I have emailed Vodafone yesterday and told them i would terminate my contract if these job loses go ahead.

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  • My contract is up in October. Bye bye vodafone!

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    • Ditto! I won’t be renewing any of my services with Vodafone. I’ve been with them for over 15 years. I’ve dropped my broadband with them and have been actively encouraging the people around me to look at alternatives also.

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  • I was lucky to get redundancy first time around off these bunch of heartless, soulless suits and I’m glad to have gotten away when I did.

    I was sitting in the office on my last week when this announcement was made and its basically, work in Newry or you don’t have a job, no redundancies, nothing. What VF are now doing I think, is waiting/stalling until service turns over to Teleperformance so that Teleperformance can then inform ex rigney dolphin staff that because they have not showed up for work they don’t have a job. Therefore taking most of the blame off VF for job losses as it was Teleperformance who let them go. And also taking any embarassment off the ‘poor’ VF executive that might have had to make the announcement.

    Vodafone did this last year with the first lot they sent to India(my job). Back then if we (rigney dolphin staff) asked VF executives any questions they would turn around and say, “talk to your employer rigney dolphin, its not up to us to answer questions to you”(exact words). This is despite the fact that Rigney weren’t even being told anything either so it was a stalemate. Vodafone are just cowards, they want to wash their hands of this and go on to make more profits. Also on my last week they had the cheek to send out the ‘quarterly financial results’ saying VF Ireland had made so many hundreds of millions of euro off the Irish people. Well I guess it’s time to clear house then eh??????

    BOYCOTT VODAFONE, THEY ARE SCUM TAKING ADVANTAGE OF A CORPORATE TAX RATE AND THEY CHARGE MORE THAN ANY OTHER NETWORK BUT PROVIDE NO BETTER SERVICE AND ARE ALSO DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR UNEMPLOYMENT IN IRELAND GROWING ALONG WITH THEIR PROFITS.

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    • seagizmo 27/04/12 #

      VF have been outsourcing staff since 2007. The main issue here is that they are too arrogant to admit they are chasing the vanity of profit with no regard for their operating environment. The sad thing is all operators are like this and until a member of the government ( as suggested by an earlier poster) links corporate tax rates to local employment they will continue to race to the bottom.

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  • Worst network provider EVER!!!

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  • Lol a race to the bottom!!

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  • Now that they are talking to the unions it means more job loses. When was the last time a union created a job?

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  • Such a laugh Vodafone’s don’t care line is horrific to deal with. I had to give up my 087 after nearly 15 years they were so bad. Outsourcing a rubbish service it’s still bad service. Economics 101 provide a good service at good price so big fail for Vodafone.

    Reply

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