UNIONS have called for British Gas to help hundreds of its Southampton staff facing redundancy get jobs with rival Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE).
Unison wants the companies to work together to transfer call centre staff at risk of redundancy into new jobs being created by SSE in Havant, where it employs around 2,500 staff.
Southampton is still reeling from the shock announcement by British Gas that it was closing its St Mary’s Road call centre by the end of the year with 500 job losses as part of a cost cutting review.
A day later SSE announced it was looking to create a further 200 new call centre jobs in Havant.
Unison national officer Mike Jeram said: “I want the two companies to put their bitter rivalries to one side and seriously consider how this could work.
“I am aware there is a fair distance between Southampton and Havant but British Gas need to look at how they can assist with helping its current staff to travel to Havant.
“I can think of a number of ways this could happen, it just takes British Gas wanting to assist their loyal staff.”
Mr Jeram was due to visit the Southampton today to talk to British Gas members.
A spokeswoman for SSE said: “We expect there will be some British Gas workers who no doubt have the skills we are looking for.
If they want to apply, we will look forward to hearing from them.”
A British Gas spokeswoman said they were already in discussions with SSE.
She said: “Our people are our number one priority and we will continue to work with SSE to maximise the number of people who can benefit from these new jobs.”
British Gas, which last year posted £522m profits, said it was dealing with more customers through digital channels and needed to reduce costs to remain competitive and offer the best prices. Its Southampton call centre in Dorset House has been open for over 20 years.
The jobs blow came as insurance giant Zurich said it was making 163 workers redundant at its offices in Whiteley, and HSBC and Clydesdale banks announced 100 Southampton jobs were at risk.
The dole queue in Southampton now stands at 6,236. The city Jobcentre said it had 1,314 vacancies in March and there were nearly five claimants chasing each vacancy.
