npower to axe 1,400 UK jobs and outsource to India

Energy giant npower is axing 1,400 jobs in the UK and outsourcing its customer service operations to India.

The big six firm, which announced a 10.4% rise in fuel bills earlier this month, is closing three UK sites and outsourcing 600 customer service jobs to British firm Capita and India’s Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

The company was last week identified as the most complained-about energy firm among consumers.

Earlier this month, npower’s parent company RWE too announced laying off 6,750 employees across Europe to deal with its £28bn debt.

Paul Massara, chief executive, npower, said: “Today we have set out our proposed vision of how we would improve customer service, calling on the support of leading retail outsourcing partners.

“I understand that these changes would be incredibly hard for some of our employees and we’ll be doing everything we can to support them over the next few months.

“This restructure is necessary if we are to deliver the levels of service our customers deserve.

“All calls would still be answered in the UK. We would have the flexibility to keep call waiting times down during busy periods, and continue to keep costs down so we can keep bills down.”