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Dublin: 15 °C Sunday 19 May, 2013

Former TalkTalk workers get a €2.6m EU grant

The grant will help retrain 432 former call centre staff and get them back into employment.

File image.
File image.
Image: Andrew Milligan/PA Archive/Press Association Images

THE 432 FORMER staff of TalkTalk, a broadband call centre that was based in Waterford, will receive a €2.6 million grant from the European Globalisation Fund.

The EGF was set up to help get people back into employment following dismissals “because of changing world trade patterns”.

At the beginning of September last year, management at TalkTalk told 575 workers at the centre that operations would cease – giving staff just 30 days’ notice.

The company decided to move their operations to three companies outside the EU and cited growing online contact with customers as one of the reasons behind a drop in demand for call centre services.

The EU grant comes weeks after the European Parliament approved €5.4 million in funding to retrain the former TalkTalk call centre staff.

MEPs voted to allocate the funds from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, after an application from the Irish government.

Payments from the EGF were also made to workers in France, The Netherlands, Spain and Sweden out of a total amount of €25.3 million.

Read: Government to apply for EU grant for TalkTalk staff >

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Comments (12 Comments)

  • Shem 19/12/12 #

    Plenty of jobs in IT from what I see. I hope they use this opportunity wisely to upskill and not just squander the retraining and end up sucking up any new call centre jobs like that in Wexford which would be a colossal waste of retraining to the tune of 2.6 million and depriving others without the access to retraining the opportunity to get in at the bottom.

    Reply
  • Who gets the money?nCould it be Fas……. :(

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  • What’s so special about the ex talk talk people what about the rest of the dole q

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    • This is an EU fund for people who lose their jobs due to companies relocating to cheaper EU countries. Dell employees in Limerick amongst others also received money from this fund. Would you really begrudge these people a few bob to give them a fighting chance?

      Reply
  • Great to see investment in the future for talented Irish workers. Retraining on top of valuable call-centre and multinational experience brings opportunity for job creation. This is where all of our optimistic energy should be spent. Congratulations!

    Reply
  • Training for what?? There is no jobs…just divide up the cash and hand it back to the ex employees…

    Reply
  • sean 20/12/12 #

    The money is not just for up-skilling, it’s also for enterprise schemes for those starting new businesses. It should be welcomed especially in Waterford as the lack of any IDA office or jobs growth strategy for the area and an unemployment rate over 20% show we live in a forgotten city.

    Reply
  • where are the grants for the construction workers, who have to retrain, immigrate and can get factory jobs because employers see them as unemployable. …

    Reply
    • sean 20/12/12 #

      There were grants available, from the EGF, for construction workers! The European Globalisation Fund was accessed by the Irish Gov several times:-

      1) Dell
      2) Waterford Crystal
      3) SR Technics
      4) Construction Workers
      5) Talk Talk

      For more info see http://www.egf.ie

      Reply
  • sean 20/12/12 #

    Oh and just to point out, this is not an additional grant, it’s the European EGF portion of the 5.4 mil that was previously announced actually being paid to the Irish gov.

    Reply
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