BOSSES at the company formed from the merger of Orange and T-Mobile faced fresh questions last night over a move which could see North-East jobs shifted abroad.

Everything Everywhere confirmed it was proposing to outsource some of the work done by finance teams, who were previously employed by Orange, to an “offshore” partner.

More than 100 jobs are at risk in Darlington as a result of changes aimed at slimming down the business, along with fewer numbers in North Tyneside and Doxford, Sunderland.

Everything Everywhere said last week that it wanted to axe 1,200 jobs across the UK, claiming it was removing “unnecessary duplication” in back office, headquarter and management areas.

One worker at the Darlington centre, in Yarm Road, said about 120 jobs were being lost in payment processing, credit control and fraud, although managers were being retained.

She said: “The whole floor is being wiped out. I’ve got a young family at home and I am devastated.”

The woman expressed fears over data protection issues should the work go abroad – most likely to India.

She said: “They don’t have the same laws as we do and have to have everything signed off and audited.

“We look after millions of pounds and it is a precious function of the company.”

She also claimed ex-Orange workers were on worse redundancy package terms than those previously employed by T-Mobile.

Darlington MP Jenny Chapman said she had secured a meeting with Everything Everywhere next Tuesday after receiving a steady stream of email correspondence from workers who had been told their jobs were at risk.

Mrs Chapman said: “I am not anticipating any great Uturn, but the least the staff deserve is a bit of clarity and some straightforward statements from the company on where they stand.”

A spokeswoman for the company said: “As part of [the] proposed structure for the business we are proposing to outsource some of the work in the finance team to an offshore partner to build on the current successful T-Mobile model.

“Full support will be provided to any employees who are impacted by the changes and we are looking at the potential of redeploying employees to other local roles.”

The spokeswoman said redundancy terms were still being discussed as part of a consultation process and would be as “fair as possible”

for all employees.