THE Steam Packet Company has refused to answer questions after announcing its call centre was relocating from Belfast with the loss of eight jobs.
The Belfast centre will close in March and the eight staff will be offered redundancy packages.
In a statement issued on Monday chief executive Mark Woodward said: 'On behalf of the company I would like to thank our staff in Belfast for their dedicated service over many years.
'It is with sadness this decision has been made but the scale of the operation has made this closure and consolidation inevitable.'
In recent years the number of customers booking online has risen to 65 per cent which resulted in the decrease of permanent employees in Belfast. Call levels have fallen from 736,000 in 2003 to 223,000 in 2007.
As a result the company has decided to relocate the call centre to its Douglas headquarters. Based in the Sea Terminal, staff will combine contact centre and check in duties.
Following the Steam Packet's announcement Isle of Man Newspapers posed a series of questions, which the firm refused to answer.
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We asked: * How long has the company had a Belfast call centre?
* How many staff were there at the optimum point – have other staff been redeployed/made redundant/not replaced or employed seasonally?
* What efforts have been made to redeploy the eight workers being made redundant?
* The Steam Packet is currently advertising for customer service assistants, is this something the Belfast staff could have done?
* Are these new jobs or to replace staff who are leaving the company?
* How many customer service assistants are being recruited?
* Will existing Isle of Man-based staff have to take on extra duties as a result of the job losses?
* Mr Woodward recently issued a 'use it or lose it' warning about Belfast and Dublin services. Is the closure of the call centre a precursor to those routes being closed?
* Does the company have any reassurance to customers making bookings/passengers that the level of service will be maintained?
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>> Your Shout: Belfast Jobs IoMSPCWHAT DO YOU THINK?Send your comments to newsviews@newsiom.co.imYOUR COMMENTSThe Steam Packet are avoiding answering a lot of pertinent questions right now. Having declared the fastcraft unsuitable for winter services they have decided it will be the sole passenger & car ferry from the middle of next month, while the only all weather vessel is taken out of service for some weeks for it's biennial maintenance. Having had two years to plan this, what on earth are they doing taking the Ben my Chree off service in February and part of March? Having had over 30 cancellations last winter with the fastcraft, before they 'pulled' the Liverpool service, they should have realised the problems of repeating the exercise, starting next month. Could not maintenance on the Ben be held over until April when the weather is more settled? Based on sea conditions since Christmas, the fastcraft would have had to have been cancelled almost every day - doesn't bode well for February, which records show is often a windy month with poor sea conditions.
STEVE H