Petersburg call center closing; 454 losing jobs
• DATABASE: Layoffs
The StarTek customer-service call center will close and lay off its 454 employees at the end of this month.
The facility on South Crater Road will stop getting calls Dec. 27, company officials said yesterday. The employees, who provide customer service for a wireless provider, were told Tuesday that they would be laid off, site director Lu Flowers said.
He said the client -- which StarTek did not identify -- notified the company it no longer needs the services of the Petersburg facility.
A handful of employees will remain until the company decides if it will close the facility permanently, Flowers said. The employees will be called back to work if StarTek gets another client, he said.
The facility at 3333 S. Crater Road opened in 2006. It closed in January 2007 after the company lost the only client it had at the time. The center re-opened in June of last year after StarTek landed a new client.
Some employees said yesterday they were very upset by the news and were worried about finding another job during a recession.
"Right now, there are not a lot of jobs out there," said Hopewell's Fabian Jones, who started working at StarTek in October.
Dominique Harris, who lives in Petersburg, said he was shocked but not surprised to hear about the layoffs.
"We are not the only ones getting hit with this," Harris said, noting that other companies have announced layoffs.
Flowers said Denver-based StarTek is working with local agencies to find jobs for its employees.
City officials have pledged to work with the company and other local businesses to help the employees with their job searches.
"We are extremely disappointed that we will have to deal with this particular loss of jobs in this area," Petersburg Mayor Annie M. Mickens said. "It is a bad time for any loss of jobs."
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