Call centre attacked after closure

Sacked 1st Line workers protest outside the Swansea office

An investigation is under way after the windows at a call centre in south Wales were smashed just hours after hundreds of workers lost their jobs.

The offices of 1st Line in Swansea were attacked on Wednesday night after the company had announced that 2,000 workers would lose their jobs.

The mobile phone company announced it had ceased trading and workers in the Cardiff and Swansea offices have all been given redundancy notices.

About 150 former 1st Line workers gathered outside the Swansea office on Thursday.

Earlier, the company had announced it was "very regrettably" ceasing trading after one major creditor withdrew support for the company.

Meanwhile moves are underway to find alternative employment for some of the sacked 1st Line workers.

The Cardiff and Newport Call Centre Initiative, which supports the growth of the call centre industry in south Wales, was having talks with other companies.

A 1st Line worker reads the redundancy notice

Call centre initiative spokeswoman Sandra Busby said the Employment Service, TEC South East Wales and the Call Centre Employers Forum were all trying to help the workers.

Insurance company Admiral has offered to take on some of the Cardiff workers.

Pay cuts

The redundancies come just weeks after Assembly First Secretary Rhodri Morgan praised Wales's "purple patch" of call centre jobs.

Ist Line was launched in July 1998 with a high-profile television advertising campaign featuring former page-three model Melinda Messenger.

It has about 250,000 mobile phone customers and planned the launch during the past week of a new phone.

Last month workers at the Swansea centre were told their pay was being cut by as much as £2.40 an hour.

Complaints

The company was criticised by the GMB union which claimed it had a long list of complaints from current and former employees about treatment by senior staff and supervisors.

The union claimed workers were humiliated if they did not reach sales targets and were not allowed to drink tea and coffee at their places of work.

But the claims of "onerous and oppressive" management were strongly denied by the firm which offered journalists the chance to visit its offices and talk to staff.

Sacked workers vented their anger at the Swansea Office

The company was featured twice on BBC's Watchdog, following viewers' complaints.

Last December, the programme included a segment on "cold-calling", in which people are telephoned out of the blue to be offered mobile telephones.

Wales had been called a magnet for call centre companies with 1,500 jobs created in the industry this year bringing the total number to about 12,000.

New jobs

Last month Mr Morgan praised 1st Line for plans to expand its call centre operation to Cwmbran, south east Wales.

It followed an announcement by the firm CyberCall to open a new centre in Cardigan.

Meanwhile British Telecom confirmed plans to create another 800 new jobs in the south Wales Valleys.

The telecommunications giant is building a new call centre on a former colliery site at Nantgarw.

The Welsh Development Agency now has a dedicated call centre team while further education colleges have set up centres to train prospective staff in the industry.