British Gas owner Centrica has announced it is cutting around 1,300 jobs, including positions in call centres in Wales. The job cuts come as the company reported a decrease in earnings in its half-year report.
Job cuts details
The workforce reduction totals around 14% of the customer operations team, following Centrica's announcement of a 'customer service transformation' scheme last month. Five hundred call centre roles will be cut, including many in Cardiff, as well as in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leicester, Stockport and Leeds.
A further 800 roles are being cut from support functions across the business.
Company statement
A spokesman for Centrica said: "We have been transforming the business for a number of years to ensure we have the right roles in the right places for the future. This means making changes to improve efficiency, drive commercial performance and give our customers the service they want."
"At the same time, we continue to invest in the skills where there is demand, including recruiting more engineers to meet growing demand and hiring 500 apprentices this year alone."
Union reaction
The GMB union has accused Centrica of replacing the 500 call centre roles with AI technology, but Centrica has called these claims "simply wrong".
Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, GMB national secretary, said: "It's an absolute disgrace British Gas is slashing hundreds of human jobs and giving them to chatbots."
"These staff are massively overworked and underpaid, yet do their level best to keep customers happy. Now, instead of being rewarded, they're being replaced by artificial intelligence."
