TeleTech says 198 may lose jobs
A TeleTech official said 198 employees at its customer management center in the Uniontown Mall could lose their jobs early next year. The company outlined its plans in a recent letter to Uniontown Mayor James Sileo and John Vogel of the state Bureau of Workforce Investment in Harrisburg.
In the letter, John Simon, senior vice president of human resources, said TeleTech had been informed that a client decided not to extend its contract as of Jan. 31, resulting in the elimination of 99 jobs.
Simon added that he has had no confirmation that another contract, which expires Feb. 1, will be renewed. If that contract isn’t renewed, another 99 workers at the center will lose their jobs.
Simon said the workers have no bumping rights and the layoffs are expected to be permanent.
Carol Hahn, spokesperson for TeleTech’s headquarters in Englewood, Colo., confirmed Friday that TeleTech sent the letter.
Hahn couldn’t provide the number of employees that work at the site, although she said the number of employees does fluctuate based on clients’ needs.
Hahn, however, said the company is hoping that it will secure new contracts to keep at least some of the employees slated to be terminated.
“Our hope is that we will be able to secure additional business in order to provide continued employment,” Hahn said.
Additionally, Hahn said employees have been notified of a number of positions available at its call center in Morgantown, W.Va.
Due to client confidentiality, she couldn’t name the companies losing the contracts. Hahn also said she couldn’t say how many workers were employed at the Uniontown center. She said the company has no plans to close the Uniontown center.
“We’re committed to having a substantial presence in Uniontown. We’re pleased with the employees,” Hahn said.
“TeleTech regrets having to lay off any employee, and remains committed to retaining a substantial business presence in Uniontown,” wrote Simon in his letter.
In the letter, Simon said the 99 jobs lost Jan. 31 include 76 customer service representatives, two OSC coordinators, four lead agents, 1 security manager, 2 trainers, 2 QA specialists, six supervisors, two OSC supervisors, 1 QA supervisor and two temporary supervisors.
He said the Feb. 1 cutbacks would include 80 sales representatives, two lead agents, one account manager, one Ops manager, one QA specialist, five supervisors, one trainer and seven verification agents.
The job losses come on the heels of an increase last fall in Fayette County’s unemployment rate. It increased from 6 percent in September to 6.9 in October. The unemployment rate was 6.5 percent last October. The numbers for November won’t be determined until later this month.
Fayette County had the highest unemployment rate in the six-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area for October. Greene and Washington counties had unemployment rates of 5.6 and 5 percent, respectively.
Overall, there were only five counties in Pennsylvania with a higher unemployment rate for October than Fayette County. Forest County had the highest unemployment rate at 12.4 percent.
There was much excitement when TeleTech announced it was coming to Fayette County in December 1997.
Gov. Tom Ridge attended the announcement ceremonies along with numerous other local and state officials.
A Fayette County native Joseph Livingston, then TeleTech’s senior vice president and chief operating officer, was credited with bringing the center to Uniontown.
Initial estimates were the firm would employ 600 people within three years.
However, the company said it exceeded those projections in the first year.
When TeleTech laid off 180 employees in 1999, it said about 500 workers remained on the job.
Later that year, company officials said they hoped to fill its facility by early 2000, which would result in the employment of 1,100 people.
An international company, TeleTech was founded in 1982 in Southern California.
The company bills itself as the leading full-service provider of strategic customer management solutions. It announced earlier this year that new contracts had been signed with Best Buy and Circuit City.
The company has 30 centers in both the United States and Canada with another 31 in Europe, Latin America and the Asia Pacific region.