Virgin media call centre staff

[Onebabyandamadcat]

I have family working at a virgin media call centre in motherwell. There are not following any of the gov guidelines for covid 19:

• no social distancing. People still expected to sit in the usual groupings, usually 1m(ish) between seats.

• hot desking still expected but no way to clean equipment between people swapping over.

• everyone is still expected to be working their full hours so the centre is packed with people. In Scotland the First Minister has said people should only be attending work if that work is essential. If you can't work from home and your work is unessential your work is supposed to close. A lot of what they are doing is not essential work.

• no ppe or sanatiser etc provided.

• yesterday it was suggested that employees arrange car shares as taxis are becoming less common.

There's no union and people are afraid of losing their jobs if they speak up. Does anyone know if there's anything or anyone I can contact about this? I am afraid for my family members health. This can't be right.

I hope you make progress on this issue. I find it especially annoying as there should be a lot of improvements that can be done at zero or minimal cost, if only the management showed a little bit of spark and initiative.

Even for purely selfish reasons, the higher management should be concerned if the lower management aren't able to rise to the occasion - what are the long term prospects for the company if that's the calibre of staff they have?

That's awful. I can only think of contacting the MP who is local to the area.

Contact a paper like the guardian, they will run it anonymously and look for stories like this. Bad pr helps _ see sports direct being forced to close.

Thanks everyone. I've contacted the MP and MSP they're trying to make inroads but not being very successful. Also the CEO who passed me to someone else who gave me a party line then refused to engage. I've contacted a few papers and news outlets though not the guardian - I'll try that one too thanks

Thank you for your help everyone. Just wanted to update. Contacted press but not much response. MP doesn't want to know and some MSPs have written to the CEO, lutz.schueler. I've also emailed him and tweeted virgin media. They're still expecting staff to hotdesk and today provided antibacterial wipes to clean down the workspace before use.

I know so many people are putting themselves in harm's way and I'm so grateful to them all. I'm lucky, I'm a teacher who has volunteered to man one of the childcare hubs but haven't been required to go in yet. I know in the grand scheme of things it might not seem like the biggest issue right now but I feel sick at the thought of my stepmum having to work like this.

Twitter Piers Morgan !

There was a whistleblower on BBC Scotland news a while back from the John Lewis call centre which I think is in Lanarkshire too, they were saying similar so it's of interest maybe try them or STV news.

This is awful, I can understand your anxiety. I hope you managed to get someone interested in this.

Try and get it out there on social media etc. There was another employer in Glasgow doing similar. Employees made dummy accounts and tweeted about what was happening and suddenly everyone could work from home but they only did it due to bad publicity.