Vodafone creating 800 jobs in city
Mobile phone giant Vodafone is to create 800 jobs in Manchester among a total of 2,100 new posts across the UK.
In an expansion of its customer service centres, the company said the additional jobs would also be in Newark in the East Midlands (150), Stoke-on-Trent (150) and Glasgow (100).
Meanwhile, Vodafone’s third-party customer service partners will create another 600 jobs in Newcastle, nearly 200 roles in the west of Scotland, and 100 in Cardiff.
It comes in the wake of the announcement of hundreds of job cuts at its Newbury headquarters.
Vodafone said the jobs would improve the quality of service for its 18 million UK customers and was part of a wider, three-year, £2bn investment programme in network and services.
“These new, skilled roles will make a real difference to our customers and a real difference to the communities that are the focus of our customer services investment,” said Vodafone UK chief executive Nick Jeffery.
“Our ambition is to give our customers the best experience possible, providing an outstanding level of service and support as we continue to invest in building the biggest and best network in Britain.”
Ofcom fined Vodafone £4.6m for serious breaches of consumer protection regulations in October, 2016 – largest fine for a telecoms company.
Ofcom said Vodafone had misled pay-as-you-go customers, charging them for top-up credit but “providing nothing in return”.
It also found Vodafone had broken the rules on handling customer complaints.
Currently, Vodafone has about 12,500 members of staff in the UK.
It has 3,700 workers in its UK customer care operation, with 2,450 of those in-house and 1,250 with other partners.
Karen Bradley , Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, said: “Vodafone is one of our country’s great international success stories and it’s fantastic this global organisation is demonstrating its confidence in the UK by creating new jobs across the north, in the midlands, in Scotland and in Wales.
“This Government is building an economy that works for everyone, one that backs business and builds on our strengths to drive growth and create jobs. We are working hard to create the right conditions for commercial investment in the UK, and today’s announcement is proof that Britain is well and truly open for business.”
