Speaking To The NPower Workers Waiting To Hear If They've Lost Their Jobs

The news that Npower is to axe 2,400 of its staff by 2018, more than a fifth of the energy company's 11,500 strong workforce, was met with resignation by employees who say that mass firings have become such a regular part of going to work that they're "normal now". What makes this round of redundancies harder is the waiting, no one knows where the axe will fall yet.

Npower announced the mostly unspecified redundancies as part of a "two year recovery plan", after reporting losses of over £100 million earlier this week. In 2014, the company cut 1,500 employees by outsourcing services to India, a move that is still fresh in the minds of Npower's remaining staff. "The atmosphere at work is negative, people don't know what's going to happen," says 29-year-old Npower call centre worker, Alice. "It's been like that for a long time because people have realised that nothing they do is going to be good enough. It's only been two years since they made all those other redundancies. I don't know if I want to be working there when the restructuring happens. I'll probably take the redundancy and walk away."

Npower, which is owned by the German power giant RWE, has been under sustained pressure in recent years. During the first nine months of 2015 it lost 200,000 customers and incurred losses of £48 million. Last December it was fined £26 million by the regulator Ofgem for not treating customers fairly.

According to trade union Unison, the fault lies with bad leadership and not with workers. Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: "Npower has been in trouble for poor decision-making at the very top, and workers are now paying the price. The company's failure to invest properly in new systems has left it with one of the worst customer service records in the business." According to 31-year-old telesales worker James, Npower's employees are being treated as badly as its customers. The redundancy announcement, he says, has been "far too vague". "They haven't let anyone know who's going to be affected or highlighted where the redundancies are going to be. It's damaged morale massively. There's so many disenfranchised people and it was bad enough before." Npower used to be "quite a joyous place to work a few years ago," he says. "Now it's become pretty downtrodden. It felt like the management panicked and started punishing people for the tiniest reason and if even they do well there's no reward. People are getting shouted at for being one minute over their 10-minute break. That's not a healthy way to work." GMB national officer Eamon O'Hearn echoed workers' call for clarity over which jobs will go. "Our members, particularly those in customer-facing roles, have been instrumental in helping the company turn round the retail business and we believe they deserve to know the full picture as soon as possible," he said. For James, even keeping his job on this round of redundancies won't put his mind at ease. "Even if my job's going to be ok, if they carry on losing money this year, like they did last year, then that's a proper worry. Then the firings will just start again," he says. "I'll get a redundancy package, but who knows if I have to look for another job whether it's going to be any good or not? But it's the people who haven't been working there for a long time that are really worried – they won't even have a decent redundancy package to fall back on." Some Npower staff have already found out that they will be losing their jobs at the 26 sites the company operates across the country. The closure of sites in Scarcroft, Leeds and Burton, Staffordshire, have already been announced and it is expected that others, mainly in the North East, will follow. "It feels like we've been deceived. It's a sad place to work at the moment. We were told, off the record, by management who pulled us into a room and told us to start looking for a new job," an anonymous County Durham telesales employee told the BBC. Npower CEO, Paul Coffey, said that the issues Npower faces are "not insurmountable." "By 2018, around 2,400 fewer people will support Npower overall through a mix of those who work directly and indirectly for Npower. Energy should be simple for our customers and we have complicated it. Our plan is to create an Npower that delivers better service, is more attractive to customers and better prepared for future opportunities – all at lower costs," Coffey said. "I regret that, as we simplify and streamline our activities, this will mean inevitable job losses but I am convinced that these steps are critical to protect the thousands of jobs that will remain." It seems kind of unlikely that Coffey's comments will be reassuring to Npower staff who have lived with the near-constant threat of losing their job over the past few years.

Some names have been changed to protect workers' identities. @ryansfletchers

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