*Red*Alert
21st August 2009, 20:53
UPS to close Tallaght centre - 200 jobs to go
21/08/2009 - 17:01:23
Parcel delivery company UPS is closing a call centre with the loss of 200 jobs because it cannot find multi-lingual staff in Ireland, it announced today.
Workers are to be laid off on a phased basis between October and next May at the customer service offices in Tallaght, south Dublin.
Around 60 jobs will be relocated to another plant at Ballymount in north Dublin.
Nigel Goodson, UPS director of human resources UK and Ireland, said the shutdown was unavoidable because of a lack of language skills in the Irish workforce.
Weve found that it is increasingly difficult to source those skills locally which means weve had to go abroad outside of Ireland and recruit employees from overseas, he said.
[That] incurs a relocation expense, because we support those overseas employees that we recruit by helping them to relocate to Ireland, and our experience has been that they tend not to stay with us very long.
Mr Goodson said many of the staff brought in from overseas use the opportunity to improve their English language skills at the firm before moving on to other employment.
UPS will now contract out the services provided at the Tallaght call centre, which dealt with inquiries from Belgium, France, the Netherlands, parts of Switzerland, as well as Ireland and the UK.
Labour TD Pat Rabbitte said it was difficult to understand how the company were having difficulty in sourcing people with the necessary language skills.
A very high proportion of the staff, perhaps over 80% are non-national, he said.
Together with available indigenous Irish, it is difficult to understand why there should be difficulty finding employees with the appropriate language skills.
If it is true that language skills are in short supply, it would appear to raise questions about our policy towards call centres generally.
Mr Goodson insisted there will be a long-term future for around 650 workers employed at other UPS plants in Ireland, including at Dublin, Cork and Shannon.
Given the huge number of foreign worker's whom the capitalists brought in from all over the world with the objective of driving down wages, I find it very, very difficult to believe that they cannot find employees with multi-lingual proficiency.
Two of my friends, who are non-EU immigrants can speak 5 languages (English, Arabic, German, Italian and French) so I really don't accept this excuse for the "phasing out" of 200 jobs in a Dublin commuter hub which is already suffering from high unemployment and crime.
21/08/2009 - 17:01:23
Parcel delivery company UPS is closing a call centre with the loss of 200 jobs because it cannot find multi-lingual staff in Ireland, it announced today.
Workers are to be laid off on a phased basis between October and next May at the customer service offices in Tallaght, south Dublin.
Around 60 jobs will be relocated to another plant at Ballymount in north Dublin.
Nigel Goodson, UPS director of human resources UK and Ireland, said the shutdown was unavoidable because of a lack of language skills in the Irish workforce.
Weve found that it is increasingly difficult to source those skills locally which means weve had to go abroad outside of Ireland and recruit employees from overseas, he said.
[That] incurs a relocation expense, because we support those overseas employees that we recruit by helping them to relocate to Ireland, and our experience has been that they tend not to stay with us very long.
Mr Goodson said many of the staff brought in from overseas use the opportunity to improve their English language skills at the firm before moving on to other employment.
UPS will now contract out the services provided at the Tallaght call centre, which dealt with inquiries from Belgium, France, the Netherlands, parts of Switzerland, as well as Ireland and the UK.
Labour TD Pat Rabbitte said it was difficult to understand how the company were having difficulty in sourcing people with the necessary language skills.
A very high proportion of the staff, perhaps over 80% are non-national, he said.
Together with available indigenous Irish, it is difficult to understand why there should be difficulty finding employees with the appropriate language skills.
If it is true that language skills are in short supply, it would appear to raise questions about our policy towards call centres generally.
Mr Goodson insisted there will be a long-term future for around 650 workers employed at other UPS plants in Ireland, including at Dublin, Cork and Shannon.
Given the huge number of foreign worker's whom the capitalists brought in from all over the world with the objective of driving down wages, I find it very, very difficult to believe that they cannot find employees with multi-lingual proficiency.
Two of my friends, who are non-EU immigrants can speak 5 languages (English, Arabic, German, Italian and French) so I really don't accept this excuse for the "phasing out" of 200 jobs in a Dublin commuter hub which is already suffering from high unemployment and crime.