Advisers called in for TV company (From Western Telegraph)

Advisers called in for TV company

THE owners of ITV Digital, whose call centre is at Pembroke Dock, have called in advisers to look into the company as a matter of urgency.

The company has cost them £800 million so far and they are struggling against Sky, which has 5.7 million subscribers compared to ITV Digitals 1.3 million.

In a statement to the Stock Exchange last week, owners Carlton and Granada said: A fundamental restructuring of ITV Digitals cost base must be concluded as a matter of urgency in order to secure the long-term future of the business.

ITV Digital would not be drawn on whether restructuring would mean job losses at Pembroke Dock.

Instead, they said that from mid-March, all the channels calls will be handled exclusively by the Pembroke Dock centre. These number millions every year from all parts of the UK.

A spokeswoman said: The decision to concentrate all customer care related calls demonstrates the level of trust in the performance of the Pembrokeshire workforce and underlines the centres progress since opening in July 2000.

Contact centre director, Cathy Corboy, said: To date, weve shared the handling of these calls with our counterparts in the Plymouth Contact Centre, who will now specialise in other areas of business.

This is a significant vote of confidence in us. Its a credit to all our staff. The additional work being transferred to the centre means that business hours will be extended from midnight to 2 am.

But those two extra hours have led some women who work at the centre to fear they will get more abusive calls from male callers.

A woman, who did not want to be named, said some men are already treating the service as a sex chat line, especially towards midnight. She is concerned that the extra late shifts will lead to more such calls, particularly from men watching the hard-core porn channel.

One or two girls of late have been rather upset, especially the young girls, she said. For £5 an hour, were not there to take all this abuse.

She said employees should all be given the choice as to whether they want to work the extra shifts. She said they have been told they are compulsory.

I feel it should be voluntary, she said. There is no thought or sensitivity for age, religious views, or anything. Its getting more and more like a little sweatshop.

A spokeswoman for ITV Digital said that staff were aware when they joined the centre that there might be a need to work until 2 am.

She also said: Having answered more than seven million calls to date, there has been a small minority of callers who have found it necessary to use an inappropriate manner when dealing with members of staff.

This is unfortunate. However, we equip our staff with the necessary training to handle such calls.

To date, we have not received any negative feedback from staff with regards to inappropriate calls they have received.

However, we are in the process of designing further training for staff which will equip them with additional skills to assist them with handling inappropriate calls. In addition to this, there is an escalation process available to all staff.