19 July 2002
A meeting of the London borough's cabinet on July 15 agreed to award a 15-year contract to manage a customer services call centre to Vertex Customer Management, in the guise of SW1 Consortium.
But the council's staff have threatened to strike unless Westminster ensures that Vertex does not transfer them to a site away from London after two years.
Around 600 Westminster staff will be transferred to Vertex as part of the deal, which involves
67 of the council's administration-based services. Hundreds will also be transferred to sub-contractor firms.
After months of deliberation, Westminster's councillors took on board public sector union Unison's concerns that employees should be transferred under their existing terms and conditions and with full pension rights. But there is no contractual guarantee that the call centre will stay in Westminster.
Peter Rogers, the council's chief executive, told Public Finance that it would remain in Westminster for two years, after which it could be located 'elsewhere in London, or even outside the city'.
In an internal e-mail to council employees, Rogers said 'the process of change to the CSI [customer services initiative] will be difficult for some of our colleagues' – re-igniting fears that a relocation to a site miles away from the borough has already been agreed.
Vertex already manages sites in Bedford, Birmingham and the Northwest and has openly talked about the 'efficiencies' that could be made through relocation outside the capital.
Rahul Patel, Westminster's Unison representative, said: 'We are concerned that Vertex will shortly propose a move away from London in order to save cash and meet their long-term contract targets by employing cheaper staff with few employee benefits. The likelihood then, is that our existing employees would not want to leave London and could lose their jobs if they refuse to relocate.'
Tony Stark, Vertex's head of employee relations, told PF that a call centre would operate out of Westminster 'throughout the duration of the contract'.
PFjul2002
