900 jobs axed, but Shop Direct will pay new bosses £80k

Shop Direct has launched a search for five £80,000-a-year bosses – just days after cutting 900 call centre jobs on Wearside.

Axed workers today spoke of their anger at the move, which follows the firm’s announcement that it plans to close its former Littlewoods call centre in Commercial Road, Hendon.

It blamed a sharp rise in the number of people shopping online for its decision to close three centres nationwide, with a loss of about 1,500 jobs.

However, it has now followed that up by advertising for five department heads, each paid £80,000-a-year.

Shop Direct workers hit by the closure plans are furious at the move.
Craig Smith, 24, who has a one-year-old son called Max, said: “Their wages are being offset by getting rid of us.

“For one £80,000 job, that is five advisers salaries. For those five jobs that’s 25 advisers they’re getting rid of to pay for it. I’ll be taking this up with the union.”

Neil Fraser, 23, added: “I wasn’t aware that they were doing that… It seems a bit ridiculous.”

Today, Shop Direct claimed that the five positions were vital to meet the company’s “growing demand” in financial services.

A spokeswoman said: “We are advertising a number of roles within our financial services business.

“We have to build our financial services business in order to offer credit products to our customers that will meet this growing demand.”

After the decision on January 28, which also affected sites in Burnley, Oldham and North Wales, Shop Direct entered a 90-day consultation with staff over the closures.

Sunderland Council, regional development agency One NorthEast and other organisations are also joining forces to help staff hit by the announcement to find new jobs.

A special group set up to help met in the city for the first time on Friday.

A number of contact centre companies have been in touch with the council since news of Shop Direct’s plans broke at the end of last week.

Shop Direct, which provides customer services for brands including Littlewoods, Woolworths.co.uk, Great Universal, Kays and Choice, blamed the rise of Internet shopping for a collapse in work for its call centres.

Four years ago, the firm was fielding 33million calls a year. Today, that is down to 19million. Over Christmas, 85 per cent of its business was handled online.

Taken from Sunderland Echo

Youth project is on ‘its last legs’

THREE members of staff have quit a crisis-hit youth group as fears grow over the future of the award-winning centre.

An emergency committee meeting was held at Pennywell Youth Project (PYP) after three core workers handed in their resignations.

The centre, which has played a key role in transforming Pennywell, is under threat amid a funding crisis.

PYP chairwoman Gladys Chilton, said: “We are really struggling and I am blaming the local authority for a lot of this.

“For two years we’ve asked for more help regarding money for core costs and got nothing.

“If they want to save Pennywell Youth Project then they have to do something fast. We’re on our last legs.

“At the moment we are struggling to exist until March.”

The project’s kitchen staff went first, followed by the head gardener and the closure of the centre’s bike shop Chain Reaction.

This week a teacher from the education department left and it was announced the key administrator and senior youth worker will leave at the end of the month.

Gladys said: “I can’t blame them for going. They have to look out for themselves and take care of their own futures, but it is very sad to see them go.

“We are cutting down, but we are keeping the project going. We are not going to close.”

If the centre can survive until April, when the new financial year begins, fresh funds will be pumped into the project.

PYP normally receives about £90,000 from Sunderland City Council, but the youth centre says this year’s budget has been slashed to £65,000, with no explanation.

Gladys said: “Nothing must happen to the youth project because I think we would see come changes on the estate straight away if the children didn’t have those doors to come through.”

Children’s services ‘value project’

JUDITH Hay from Sunderland City Council’s Children’s Services, said: “The Pennywell Youth Project has an excellent track record for developing ways of supporting both young people and the local community that have really made a positive contribution to our city.

“Sunderland City Council values and supports the contribution provided by all voluntary sector youth projects, including Pennywell Youth Project, to the life our city and hope that contribution continues.

“Grants are allocated a year at a time, and although the amount available has decreased for the period 2010 to 2011, the city council remains committed to providing annual grants and working to support key partners.

“We respond to any request for help and give it our due consideration, and have always provided the project with any support we can.

“We are working to ensure that sources of additional finance are identified and made available where possible in addition to the annual core grant.”

Taken from Sunderland Echo

Union bosses demand answers over closure

Union leaders are demanding bosses justify their plans to axe 900 call centre jobs on Wearside.

Shop Direct has announced plans to close its former Littlewoods call centre in Commercial Road, Hendon.

The firm has blamed a sharp rise in the number of people shopping online for its decision to close three centres nationwide, with a loss of about 1,500 jobs.

Officials from the GMB union, which represents workers at the site, met company bosses to demands answers to a number of vital questions over the closure plan.

Regional organiser Mickey Hopper said: “We met with the company and we have put our formal questions to them.

“We have a number of questions we want answers to – we are asking them why Sunderland, why these numbers?”

The union and company will meet again towards the end of next week.

“We have another meeting next Thursday at which the company will come back with their answers,” said Mr Hopper.

“We are asking them about the costs, how many calls come through the centre, the costs of the site itself.

“We do not believe everything they are telling us. We are challenging the company’s information.”

The union was braced for a fight to protect its members jobs or to ensure they got the best possible redundancy package.

“We have made it quite clear to the company that we are not going to go away lightly,” he added.

Yesterday’s meeting was the start of a 90-day consultation period between management and unions over Shop Direct’s plans to close the Sunderland site along with others in Burnley and Newton in Wales.

Sunderland City Council is working with regional development agency One North East to set up a response team to help staff, similar to the group established in the wake of Nissan’s announcement of 1,200 job cuts last year.

Taken from Sunderland Echo

Sunderland’s jobless total dips

Sunderland was the only part of the North East to see the number of jobless claims continue to fall last month.

The number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance across the region rose by 1,226, but the claimant count in the Sunderland City Council area was down 62 from 10,305 to 10,243.

City council leader Coun Paul Watson said: “Since May last year, Sunderland has seen a fall in the number of residents who are claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance. This is encouraging news when compared to the national figures and other parts of our region, but I would not want anyone to think that anybody is complacent.

“Sunderland’s economy is now far more robust and resilient, and we have a diversified business base that is better able to withstand shocks.

“The city council and organisations across the city and North East continue to do all they can to help create employment opportunities, and to help people into work.”

The employment picture is not so rosy across the rest of the region.
Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton have seen the biggest increases in claimant numbers over the past year.

Middlesbrough has the country’s fifth highest proportion of working age people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, Hartlepool is joint seventh and South Tyneside is eighth.

The most popular occupations sought by jobseekers in the region are sales and retail assistants, goods handling and storage occupations and labourers in process and plant operations.

Taken from Sunderland Echo

Parents pack school hearing

Anxious parents vented their anger as they attended an 11th-hour meeting to save their school.

Schools Adjudicator Brian Slater hosted a meeting to help him decide the fate of Gillas Lane Primary School in Houghton.

The primary school was earmarked for closure earlier this year as part of Sunderland City Council’s proposals to tackle huge number of surplus places, but parents have been campaigning against the plans.

After a lengthy debate in the summer, Sunderland Council’s school organisation committee agreed to defer a decision.

Members were asked by education officials to give the final go-ahead for the axe to fall in August 2012, but they voted four to one in favour of deferring the decision into the hands of the Schools Adjudicator.

At last night’s meeting held at the school, Mr Slater heard views from the local authority, campaign group, Gillas Lane Action to Support Schools (Glass), and residents.

Speaking at the meeting, Glass chairman Dave Coulbeck said: “As parents and carers, we believe we have had a raw deal in this process. Our views and wishes have been sidelined.”

He claimed the proposal had been “misleading” and “poorly executed”.

Those fighting to save the school say its small class sizes are key to giving pupils a good grounding in life.

Earlier this year the authority announced plans to shut Gillas Lane and transfer pupils to nearby Bernard Gilpin Primary School.

Fighting back the tears, Gillas Lane headteacher Terry Hambleton, told the meeting: “What I firmly believe is that there is scope and room for two good schools in the area.

“We know their names, their families, what happens on a weekend, their strengths, what makes them tick.”

Parents and staff are worried about pupils going from a school of 130, with a nursery, to one of more than 400 without a nursery.

Representing the council, Keith Moore, deputy director of Children’s Services, said: “We absolutely understand as a local authority the difficulties and sensitivities of the proposal we are making and we want to acknowledge the excellent work of the school.

“But we have a responsibility and a duty to balance this with the clear duty to manage surplus places.”

Mr Slater will now consider all views before making a decision.

Taken from the Sunderland Echo

Unemployment Levels in Sunderland, North East and the UK

The Guardian has given a detailed database of benefit claimant figures today, so I thought I would highlight some of the statistics relevant to Sunderland and compare them to regional and national levels. No Surprise that Sunderland has a higher rate than both of these. Please note, that the figures are for benefit claimants and not unemployed people as a whole, otherwise the figures would be far greater.

The UK in total has 1,145,989 people who claim benefits, making up 4.2% of the working population. This is a 1.6% (612,276) increase in the last year.

The North East has 85,231 people who claim benefits, making up 5.3% of the working population. This is a 1.7% (27,890) increase in the last year.

Sunderland North has 3,103 people who claim benefits, making up 6.2% of the working population. This is a 2% (997) increase in the last year.

Sunderland South has 3,503 people who claim benefits, making up 6.9% of the working population. This is a 2.1% (1,084) increase in the last year.

This obviously shows that there is a lack of decent job, training and education opportunities in the Sunderland area, and that when the recession hit, that it has had most effect on working class and neglected areas like Sunderland. Despite this, it has been revealed this week that, there are going to be massive cuts to training schemes nationally.

Apparently the unemployment rate is slowing, but unemployment is still increasing and pay rises are now the lowest on record. And to add to this, after the next general election, all the major parties have promised big cuts the public sector, meaning many more job losses to come.

I would like to add that there are going to be huge benefit cuts in the months to come, in the form of the Welfare Reform Bill. This is likely to distort statistics like this, as these only detail people claiming benefits. So there will be many ‘hidden’ unemployed people who are ignored.

The overall picture does not look too good, despite much of the media spin things are getting better. They are not getting better for the average working class person, the single parent families, and those who rely on unsecure low paid jobs and benefits.