Perth call centre staff fear for jobs

Jul 20 2010 by Denis Brown, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

A CALL centre with 23 staff at Perth’s Isle of Skye hotel may be deemed surplus to requirements by Mitchells & Butlers (MB).

Late last week, Travelodge announced it was acquiring leases of 52 Innkeeper’s Lodges across the UK from the hospitality giant, including the Fair City’s Isle of Skye and Glover Arms.

The deal does not include either hotel’s food and beverage operations – Toby’s Carvery at Dundee Road and Vintage Inns at Crieff Road – and MB has assured the PA that jobs at both are safe.

But while Travelodge hopes to retain all 430 hotel staff and create an extra 115 positions nationwide, the future looks less rosy for 23 reservations contact centre employees based at the Isle of Skye hotel.

The dedicated team, which since about 2004 has handled bookings for Innkeeper’s Lodge nationwide, is now discussing “available options” with MB.

When asked to comment about the Perth-based team’s future, a Travelodge spokeswoman said the reservations centre was not part of the takeover deal and would remain under MB’s control.

An MB spokesman said the company had kept employees fully briefed during the sale process and was now engaged in a period of consulation with the reservations team.

“We will use this period to consider all of the available options as we progress with the migration of the hotels to Travelodge,” he said.

“It would be unfair to our employees to comment in any further detail prior to the conclusion of the consultation.

“In the meantime it is business as usual for the team who will be continuing to take reservations on behalf of the existing collection of hotels.”

But Perth and Kinross councillor Alexander Stewart, formerly team coordinator when the centre was established in 1998, said the anxious 23 staff, most female, were working beneath a cloud of uncertainty.

Cllr Stewart, who has written to Travelodge chairman Grant Hearn asking if the 23 employees could be redeployed, said his former colleagues believed their situation was not looking good.

“They feel betrayed as they’ve all worked really hard to establish the centre, taking tens of thousands of reservations and now it appears they’re surplus to requirements,” he said.

“It would be extremely difficult for these workers to find another job in the current employment market where there are few opportunities and up to seven people are applying for any job.”

A Travelodge spokeswoman said all 52 hotels would continue to be operated by MB during the next two to three months during a £10 million refurbishment programme to bring hotels in line with the Travelodge brand.

She said booming business at the existing Perth Broxden Travelodge had demonstrated strong demand for low-cost accommodation locally with rooms priced from £19 a night.

The 52 new leases boost Travelodge’s empire to 452 hotels and 30,504 rooms across the UK, Ireland and Spain.

Redundancies would be more bad news for Perth, which saw the loss of 57 jobs after printer Woods of Perth went into receivership in May, followed recently by Clachan Construction, with 150 jobs threatened.