UK NEWS

BARCLAYS CUTS 900 SCOTS JOBS

Goldfish call centre in Cumbernauld is to close

Thursday May 8,2008

By Rod Mills

ALMOST 1,000 jobs will be axed when a Scots call centre closes later this year, it was announced yesterday.

Barclays is proposing to close the Goldfish call centre in Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, with the loss of 900 jobs.

The credit card business’s head office in London, which has 90 full-time employees, is also to shut.

But the bank said efforts would be made to find the workers at the Canary Wharf office alternative roles.

The move comes three months after the bank bought the Goldfish credit card business.

The shock news was broken to employees yesterday. They will continue to work at the Cumbernauld centre during a consultation period, which will last up to three months, while the work is transferred.

Extremely disappointed

Enterprise Minister Jim Mather

Enterprise Minister Jim Mather said he was “extremely disappointed” with the announcement.

He said: “Both the First Minister and I have been in contact with the company and officials have been actively exploring all possible avenues of assistance to allow Barclaycard to continue its presence in Cumbernauld.”

If it were to close, Mr Mather said, efforts would be made to find an alternative owner to take over the state-of-the-art centre as a going concern.

He added: “We will also be exploring how we can help the workforce move into new employment in the industry.”

Amer Sajed, managing director of UK Cards at Barclaycard, said there would be a “comprehensive package of advice and support” for those affected.

He added: “We consider that this is the right strategy in the context of this highly competitive industry.”

Barclaycard stressed there would be no change for now to the services for Goldfish’s customers.

Barclays, Barclaycard’s owners, agreed a £35million deal to buy Goldfish in February, adding around 1.7 million customers to the bank’s 9.6 million Barclaycard card holders.

Barclays announced last month that profits fell at the start of this year after the credit squeeze.