As part of its ongoing business strategy to have more direct engagement between its staff and customers, eir has taken the decision to move its customer contact centres in Ireland back in-house. The contact centres services have been managed by global technology company, HCL Technologies (HCL).

HCL will continue to provide non-voice services to eir, including web-chat and back office services.

HCL staff in Cork, Limerick and Citywest will transfer to eir under the TUPE Regulations. HCL’s operation in Telephone House in Dublin will close in the first quarter of 2019.

The HCL staff in Telephone House working on behalf of eir will have the option to transfer under the TUPE Regulations and their roles will be located in Cork, Limerick or Sligo.

If the HCL employees located in Telephone House do not wish to transfer to Cork, Limerick or Sligo they will be offered redundancy and / or termination payments by HCL.

The transition to move contact centre services in-house will take approximately six months. During this period eir and HCL will endeavour to minimise disruption through detailed planning and co-operation between the two companies.

eir’s Managing Director of Customer Operations Timothy Spence said that “eir has continued to evolve its customer contact strategy over time and we are pleased that HCL has continued to evolve with us. Following the majority acquisition of eir by French telecom company NJJ, eir will implement the NJJ business model bringing various functions back in-house, so that more eir customers engage directly with eir employees. HCL will continue to work with eir on a number of our services. We would like to thank their staff for all their support.”

Anoop Tiwari, Corporate Vice President – Business Services at HCL Technologies, said: “HCL has been a long-term and recognised partner to eir. We will be fully co-operating with eir to ensure a smooth transition following their decision to bring the customer contact centres back in house. The considerable contribution made by our employees is highly appreciated and we shall be consulting with them and their representatives. We will be supporting all of our employees throughout the process and look forward to continuing to provide a number of important services to eir.”