This is an old story. As of December 2014 I cannot find any further updates, although the story is currently receiving quite a few hits.
Last year, Autoglass announced that it was shedding 400 jobs. A reader also furnished me with some additional information.
It has been very quiet in the intervening 9 months, but the dramatic increase in the numbers of people finding the blog on terms involving “Autoglass” made me suspect something was afoot. And here is the news story that proves it (link now dead).
It’s worth a reminder that Autoglass announced last June that it was to shed 10% (400) of its workforce because people apparently were driving more carefully and not breaking as many windscreens.
This latest story says that Autoglass is beginning a “consultation period” with staff after announcing a reduction in contact centres and branches. These closures have apparently been briefed to staff as “operational changes” (that gives me flashbacks again to when I worked in the rat race). I like how it says this is to “improve efficiency” – last year, it was because no one was breaking windscreens!
In short, Autoglass has got to make people redundant because it is losing money – you can’t dress it up any more than that.
Another surprise is that whereas the original story mentioned 400 jobs, this latest one involves 52 call centre staff and the closure of 16 branches, involving a further 500 staff. That second figure was not provided by the official Autoglass spokeswoman, but “a source”.
So, not 400 but over 550 staff look set to lose their jobs.
To be honest, when you read this latest story, it bears almost no resemblance to the one from last summer. It’s hard to believe the redundancies are part of the same issue.
Good luck to all those involved.