Vodafone shifts call centre work to Egypt

Vodafone says recruiting headaches have forced the company to move work to an Egyptian call centre, but a union says cutting labour costs is a more likely reason.

From next month 15,000 to 30,000 calls a month will be answered by 32 staff at Vodafone Egypt's call centre in Cairo. The number will gradually increase to about 200,000 calls. There will be no redundancies in New Zealand.

Customer care director Andrea Midgen said a combination of recruitment difficulties and a surge in calls to its call centre staff had led to overworked employees and less than desirable service.

Unable to recruit enough staff in Auckland, the company looked at several New Zealand cities in which to set up a 200-phone centre, but was unable to find a suitable site or sufficient workforce.

The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union, which has members at call centres but not at Vodafone, said cheaper pay rates and overheads were probably the reason behind the move to Egypt.