16 Dec 2009

Pollster to close call centre

6:13 am on 16 December 2009

Pollster Colmar Brunton is closing its call centre in Takapuna because it says most of its interviews are now conducted online.

Unite Union is calling for a boycott of the company as 50 call centre workers will lose their jobs and not receive any redundancy pay.

Colmar Brunton say the Takapuna personnel are all casual employees with contracts that do not include redundancy payouts.

Chairman Dick Brunton says its been a tough year and the union's request for redundancy is unreasonable.

He says more than half the company's business is online and changes in technology mean monitoring can be done in an interviewee's own home, rather than through a call centre.

Mr Brunton says significant savings will be made by closing the call centre.