Virgin Media to Axe Jobs in Birmingham and Bradford

he Communication Workers Union today (Monday) condemned Virgin Media's announcement to axe more jobs from its services division in Birmingham and Bradford and outsource the roles to Bangalore, India.

The cable TV, phone and broadband operator plans to make 50 redundancies from their Eagle Court centre in Birmingham and 88 redundancies from Dudley Court in Bradford. There may well be further redundancies elsewhere from the services division.

At the end of the last year, Virgin Media declared there would be 660 redundancies, which they said would reduce duplication in senior managerial roles. In fact it resulted in the outsourcing of the surveying aspects of the access planner's role just before Easter and 70 redundancies.

Since international cable giant Liberty Global bought the company in 2013, Virgin has been undergoing cost-cutting by outsourcing back office functions.

CWU national officer John East said: "This announcement is a kick in the teeth to these employees who have already undergone several rounds of redundancies. Morale is understandably low, especially when staff are performing well and the work is there for them to do.

“It's a cynical move to outsource jobs abroad when unemployment in the UK is still high. This will undoubtedly hit the local economies in both Birmingham and Bradford.

“We are extremely disappointed in Virgin Media's continual cost-cutting which will have a disastrous effect on customer service. We will fight hard to keep Virgin Media jobs in-house and ensure that those workers who are affected are properly supported.”

Notes to Editors:

- The Communication Workers Union represents over 200,000 members in the telecoms and postal sectors.

- CWU has members in engineering, call centre and support roles in Virgin Media. The union had official recognition for national bargaining on behalf of engineering staff until the company chose to end this in November 2012 following little notice and a dubious referendum.

-ENDS-