A CLOUD was hanging over more than 600 North-East call centre staff last night after cable TV company ntl announced a major shake-up.

The company said it was cutting 1,500 staff jobs nationwide over the next 18 months as the group merges its 13 call centres into three bases at Manchester, Swansea and Bellshill, in Glasgow.

The group announced the closure of its call centres at Winnersh, near Reading, Belfast, Glasgow, Brighton and Cambridge.

A small number of employees would be retained to provide support cover at four centres in Nottingham, Luton, Coventry, and its North-East centre in Stockton.

Although company officials maintained the changes would not lead to job losses in the North-East, staff at the call centre said last night they had already been told to expect the worst.

The Northern Echo understands senior managers were briefed at the customer care centre yesterday and warned to expect redundancy notices this summer.

Although no final decision has been taken on when that will happen, staff told The Northern Echo that statutory 90-day notices are expected to be issued in July.

One team leader, who asked not to be named, said: "All the section heads were called into a meeting this morning and told that 90-day redundancy notices were going to be handed out in July.

"We were told to expect job losses.

"Everyone is looking for a new job before the axe falls."

The customer care centre employs 638 people.

The company is planning to turn the Preston Farm Industrial Estate customer care centre into a specialist site for handling fault management and installation calls.

Company officials maintained the shake-up would not have a major impact.

Public relations director for Malcolm Padley said the move to turn Teesside into a specialist centre would safeguard jobs.

He said: "Nobody involved in the call centre initiative was put on 90-days notice. The staff were given a presentation, which did tell them about the people in Reading being put on notice - but that is it.

"We have a long association with the area, and even when the centre moves to specialist category we will be looking for full deployment of staff."

He added: "We want to improve our customer service, and to do that we have done a big review and focused on seven sites.

"Teesside is going to be one of those and it is going to become a strategic centre for us, handling our fault management and installation services."

Britain's biggest telephone and cable TV firm said the 1,500 job losses were the result of its decision to reduce the number of its 13 UK call centres, following an internal review of staffing levels.

Chief executive Simon Duffy said: "Ntl has made good progress in improving its customer service, but we still have some way to go.

"The consolidation of our call centres and investment in leading-edge technology is a critical step on our path to greatly improved service for our customers."

Davie Hall, regional secretary of the union Amicus, said: "It appears this is another large organisation that is looking to deploy staff elsewhere in the country, to the detriment of the North-East."