Energy giant npower has confirmed plans to cut 1,460 jobs under restructuring of its customer service activities, including outsourcing work to India.
The firm, owned by German company RWE, said it aimed to deliver a more “efficient, flexible and improved customer experience”.
Work will be outsourced to Capita and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
Paul Massara, chief executive of npower, said “Today we have set out our proposed vision of how we would improve customer service, calling on the support of leading retail outsourcing partners.
“I understand that these changes would be incredibly hard for some of our employees and we’ll be doing everything we can to support them over the next few months. This restructure is necessary if we are to deliver the levels of service our customers deserve.
“All calls would still be answered in the UK. We would have the flexibility to keep call waiting times down during busy periods, and continue to keep costs down so we can keep bills down.”
Npower said its customers would continue to be served on the phone by people based in UK call centres, with back-office functions outsourced to India.
Npower’s offices in Stoke on Trent will close, affecting about 550 employees, and one of three offices in Oldbury will close, making 400 workers redundant.
There will also be a number of redundancies at npower’s sites at Rainton Bridge, Sunderland, affecting around 430 employees, and in Leeds, affecting 80 workers.
A site in Thornaby will close but employees will relocate to npower’s head office in Rainton.
Much of npower’s customer facing work will be outsourced to Capita, affecting 540 employees.
Npower said all phone calls would continue to be answered in the UK and people transferring to Capita would still to be based in the north east of England, with the same terms and conditions of employment as before.
Back office administrative activity such as checking meter readings against customers’ bills will be outsourced to India.
Over the next eight months, about 1,460 posts will be made redundant subject to a 60 day consultation programme which npower will now be undertaking with all affected employees.
Enhanced redundancy terms are being offered and there will also be a full package of on-site advice and support, said the company.
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