A reduction in employees and a shift of business needs from clients are fueling rumors about Enid’s StarTek call center, a company official has acknowledged.
The Enid News & Eagle has received more than a half dozen phone calls over the last two months from employees and former employees expressing concern about StarTek and the company’s scheduling of employees and also expressing concern the call center may close here.
Former StarTek employee Karen Wilkins contacted the News & Eagle last week and said she quit her job at the company this summer. She said she worked at the call center and also draws Social Security and receives a royalty payment, so she is limited in what she can make without affecting her Social Security income. Her shift was changed to three days a week and the schedule locked, then she was told she would work four 8-hour days.
“I told them I couldn’t do it, and they said either do it or don’t have a job. So I left,” Wilkins said.
Rosemary Hanratty, StarTek director of communications and marketing, said some business has shifted away from the Enid center, which is why the rumors about the company closing started.
Hanratty said there are no plans to close the Enid facility and scheduling of employees is dictated by the needs of the call center’s clients. Company officials said the local call center currently employs about 235 people, which is down from the 500 employees the company said it employed in February 2010. Hanratty said there were 100 more employees at StarTek this time a year ago.
“It is not unusual in the call center business to have some fluctuations in client demand,” Hanratty said.
Wilkins said other employees have had similar situations with work schedules. There are schedule options available for both times of day and days of the week, but they may not always be options that appeal to an employee because of their own requirements, Hanratty said. Scheduling is determined by clients needs, she said.
When asked why she thinks the company was being unreasonable with its employees, Wilkins responded, “the more people that get out, the fewer they have to pay unemployment on.”
Wilkins said her supervisor once told her supervisors would receive severance pay and be retrained for other jobs.
“But now they have let supervisors go,” she said.
“All I can tell you is that at this time, there are no plans to close Enid,” Hanratty said. “We don’t comment on employee issues, they are very complicated and it is our policy not to comment. We are not closing.”
Wilkins mentioned a federal lawsuit against a StarTek location in Colorado, but Hanratty said that will have no impact on Enid.
“StarTek is a business that is driven by clients’ needs. It isn’t StarTek making the changes, but often the clients needs we are responding to,” Hanratty said.
StarTek is a business process outsourcing company. StarTek has two locations in the Philippines, which it has had for a number of years, and also a call center location in Honduras and one in Costa Rica, which Hanratty said were dictated by clients’ needs.
Jerald Gilbert, city of Enid finance director, said there is an agreement between the city and the company for the city to pay StarTek a yearly incentive payment if its payroll is $8 million or higher. The last payment made was Nov. 16, 2010, which was for the 2009 year. He said there is no paperwork regarding StarTek for any 2010 incentive payment. The incentive payment was part of the agreement for StarTek to locate the facility here.