Vodafone to move call centres abroad

MOBILE OPERATOR Vodafone has decided to move two call centre operations from Ireland to Egypt and India respectively, and to outsource its debt collections to a third party here.

These moves will affect 45 staff at Vodafone and 139 employees of Rigney Dolphin, an outsourcing group that runs call centre activities on behalf of the mobile phone company.

These initiatives have been taken against a backdrop of falling revenues and declining customer numbers as the recession affects consumer spending.

Vodafone Ireland’s service revenues for the three months to the end of March declined by 6.2 per cent to €245 million.

Its average revenue per user fell to €32.30, a 10.5 per cent decrease year-on-year.

Vodafone has decided to move its mobile data services call centre from Ireland to an existing group facility in Egypt.

This function is carried out for the group by Rigney Dolphin and will affect 41 staff there.

The move is to be completed between August and October.

Vodafone’s mobile back office functions are being relocated to India, again to an existing group operation.

This will affect 27 Vodafone staff and 75 Rigney Dolphin employees. The switch will take place between October and April.

In addition, its debt collection operation, which has become more active in the recession as an increasing number of customers face financial difficulties, is to be outsourced to a specialist third party company in Ireland. This will affect 18 Vodafone roles and 23 Rigney Dolphin positions and the change will happen between September and November.

It is understood that Vodafone is currently in discussions with parties in relation to this contract.

Vodafone will continue to have more than 400 staff involved in other call centre activities in Ireland. In total, it employs about 1,200 staff in Ireland.

All affected Vodafone staff will be offered the opportunity to transfer to alternative roles within the company here. Voluntary redundancy packages and transfers to the third party debt collection service will also be offered.