BT attacked over call centre sale

A DEAL by BT to sell its Belfast call centre has been attacked by unions as 'an indirect subsidy for the export of jobs'.

BT used a £4.5m Government grant to build a £9m call centre in Northern Ireland, but is now selling the centre to HCL Technologies, the company that will run its controversial new Indian call centres.

HCL is buying the call centre in Belfast for just £7m. That means BT is pocketing the £2.5m difference.

A spokesman for the Communications-Workers Union said: 'BT is not directly taking the money and using it to buy call centres in India, but the deal it has struck is subsidising the loss of other British jobs.'

In addition to paying for almost half the start-up costs, BT received further investment in the form of training for workers from the Department for Education. A spokesman there was unable to say how much the training was worth. So far, HCL has paid £6.3m to BT for 90% of the call centre.

It will pay a further £650,000 at the end of this year to buy out the rest.

At the same time, BT is subcontracting call centre work, including support for its new mobile phone service, back to HCL in Belfast in a deal guaranteeing £16.4m over three years.

HCL will also carry out directory inquiries work in India.

A BT source described the deal as 'highly competitive' and 'great for BT'.