Vertex Call Centre (Dingwall)

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at 5:25 pm on 30 November 2005.

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Photo of Eleanor Scott Eleanor Scott Green 5:25, 30 November 2005

I thank Maureen Macmillan for lodging the motion, whose sentiments I agree with. However, I hope that I am not going to sound negative, because some of what I have to say is a bit negative.

I should declare a past interest in that my son worked for Vertex for a year when he left Dingwall Academy. The job suited him very well because he could work in the evening and did not have to get up in the morning. He has since moved on.

I acknowledge the gap that the closure of the Vertex call centre will create in a place the size of Dingwall, given the number of jobs affected. I agree with the view that it is, to say the least, irksome that a company in receipt of public money can close the call centre. I am not sure what redress we have in such a situation—perhaps the minister will make that clear.

I have concerns about call centres in general. Mary Scanlon said that there are 300 call centres in Scotland and that the number of jobs in call centres is increasing. I think that call centres were rather seized on, particularly in the north, as a good thing that could provide employment. However, there is a degree of overprovision. The fact that call centres can operate anywhere has both strengths and weaknesses. It means that they can operate easily in the north of Scotland, but it also means that they can up sticks and go to India, as we have seen, or anywhere. It could be a case of Thurso today, Madras tomorrow. We have to acknowledge that worrying fact. We should not invest too much in call centres, because they might be here today, gone tomorrow.

There are examples of enterprise companies going overboard in seizing on call centres as a good thing and a possible employment prospect in our areas. I know of one call centre that was built in Golspie four years ago. It has 50 seats in it but has never been occupied—it is just sitting there. I know about it because it is next door to the premises of a community recycling group, which is strapped for space and which has been casting covetous glances at the premises occupied by the call centre. It is not allowed to use the premises, because the building houses a call centre, even though it has never been occupied.

There is overcapacity in the number of premises for call centres. To pick up on something that Mary Scanlon said, if call centre jobs were to come to the area, we would want existing establishments to have first go at them. We do not want to build one new centre while another is losing jobs. There is an issue about capacity and overreliance on an unstable sector to provide our jobs in the north.

There is anecdotal evidence from India that call centre jobs are not benefiting Indians, because they are being filled by backpacking westerners. That relates to what Mary Scanlon said about turnover.

Call centres are probably here to stay, even though some of us do not particularly enjoy getting the call centre response from someone who is clearly not in the area in question, such as when we try to book a train ticket to wherever and the person in the call centre clearly does not know where that is. Call centres are here to stay, but that does not necessarily mean that they will stay here.

I hope that Vertex can be successful in either keeping its existing jobs, which would be ideal—I agree with Maureen Macmillan that there is a skills base that it would be crazy to lose—or finding some other client, which would be the second-best option.

I get the feeling that perhaps the call centre boom has peaked. I am not convinced that call centres will be the answer to our employment problems in the north. They looked attractive, because they could be operated anywhere, but that means that they are liable to go at the drop of a hat. We cannot build our economy on the basis of people answering the phone.

I wish the Vertex people well. I hope that they can get new work or keep the jobs that they have, but I am not optimistic about the future of the industry. I am sorry to be so negative.