Firstsource workers ‘shocked’ as 63 staff affected by new redundancy process
Firstsource has confirmed redundancy at the Londonderry call centre.
One of the employees whose job is now at risk said that while there had been some speculation over the past year among staff that more jobs could go at the Springtown plant, the announcement on Wednesday came “completely out of the blue”.
"We were shocked,” the Firstsource worker explained. “We had no idea this was going to happen yesterday.”
A spokesperson for Firstsource, confirmed: “Firstsource has commenced a redundancy consultation process relating to work for our client NOW Broadband. It affects 63 employees in Northern Ireland.
“Staff impacted have been informed today and as a responsible employer, we are working closely to support them throughout this process.”
The spokesperson added that the company, which employs hundreds of people at its Springtown base “remains committed to Derry/Londonderry”.
Most of the employees directly affected work remotely from home, the employee said.
When the announcement was made on Wednesday the workers were asked to choose representatives from among themselves by 5pm on Thursday to act on their behalf in discussions with the company over the redundancies.
"They did say there would be opportunities to move to other contracts, but they didn’t say how many there are or what percentage that would be,” they added.
"Because most people work from home there hasn’t been a great opportunity to talk to other people working there.
"People were very shocked. We half expected it would come at some time after the redundancies last year but it was just so out of the blue. I was shocked on a personal level. It came completely out of nowhere, and we were told the process should be done by the end of July.”
The worker said that like others they were worried about losing their jobs and everyone in that position perhaps applying at the same time for other posts.
The announcement this week comes a year after it emerged that a separate redundancy process at Firstsource Solutions was commencing back in May 2023.