I really hope the retailer reconsiders this decision that will have a big effect on the local economy.” It’s hardly in keeping with the ethos of John Lewis. To then learn that your job is being moved to the far east to save money is a double blow. New people with no cultural experience will be starting from scratch in the Philippines.”Ĭharlotte Holloway, the Labour candidate for Plymouth Moor View, said: “To be laid off five days before Christmas is a real kick in the teeth. People have trained for the last year or two to get to grips with the complexity of the John Lewis customer services systems. The stupid thing is that we all know that it will come to back to haunt John Lewis as customer service standards will slip even further.”Īnother worker said: “It seems ludicrous. “Colleagues are feeling badly let down by the company. While a lot of the call work is staying in the UK, all the email contact and much of the other work is or has been moved to the Philippines. “When anyone calls John Lewis customer services, it is us that answers the phone. “Technically, John Lewis can say it is not doing this as all the staff are employed by Sitel,” one told the Guardian. Sacked staff at the Sitel Plymouth site, some of whom have worked on the John Lewis contract for two years, are furious after being asked to train workers in the Philippines on how to take over their roles. The department store group had just reported its first ever loss, of £26m in six months. One in three senior head office management posts – 75 out of 225 – are going. Two months ago, John Lewis announced a restructuring in an effort to save £100m a year. It now has 180 staff handling “non-verbal” John Lewis customer service queries. John Lewis has denied it is moving substantial numbers of the Plymouth jobs to the far east but admitted that it expanded its Manila operation in March. More than 300 staff at the Plymouth call centre, which is owned and run on John Lewis’s behalf by the US outsourcing giant Sitel, have either left or been made redundant.

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