Shea-Porter meets with workers laid off from AT&T
DOVER — U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter met Tuesday with a group of employees and union representatives affected by AT&T's recent announcement to lay off 178 call center employees.
Shea-Porter met with about 20 people during an informal roundtable discussion at her Dover office to listen to personal stories and provide information about resources available through the state for re-employment.
Tanya Demaray, of Dover, said the news that she had lost her job affected her and several other mothers working on the night shift in the call center uniquely because her schedule does not allow her to work another job with daytime hours.
"There are a lot of mothers that worked at night and to take away that job is difficult," Demaray said. "There's not a lot of other places to go."
She added that the call center, which typically pays employees about $12 per hour, provided a good wage that she will not likely receive in other jobs, such as retail stores.
During the discussion, Shea-Porter emphasized that while she cannot take a position on the layoffs, she understands the hardship employees are feeling and her office is completing a thorough fact-finding investigation to ensure the decision followed the letter of the law.
"We need to have a fair, neutral, balanced look at this," Shea-Porter said.
Several employees said they were concerned that AT&T violated the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act because neither the employees nor their union, the Communications Workers of America Local 1298, were given 60 days notice of the decision.
The WARN Act requires employers with more than 100 employees to notify employees or union representatives 60 days before a "mass layoff," which is considered either 500 employees or 33 percent of the workforce, according to information on the Department of Labor's website.
Employees also heard from Michael Power, the community outreach executive director for the Workforce Opportunity Council, about state-run programs that provide assistance for re-employment.
"The bad news is you are unemployed," Power said. "The good news is you have about seven state agencies behind you."
Power told the workers they would soon be contacted by a "rapid response team," which will provide information and help walk them through the process of a "pre-employment plan."
Both the employees and union representatives were notified Friday afternoon about the staff cuts and were told their last day will be in two weeks.
Bill Henderson, president of the CWA Local 1298, said the union was meeting with AT&T for a previously scheduled collective bargaining session directly following the discussion at Shea-Porter's office, and the union planned to address the possibility of a severance package for the employees.
In January, more than half of the workers at the call center joined the Communications Workers of America union after months of information gathering and negotiating.
Rapid Response Team
Shea-Porter asking for answers to AT&T call center layoffs
DOVER — U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter is still seeking information about a recent decision by AT&T to lay off 178 call center employees. Shea-Porter has sent formal letters to both AT&T and the Department of State, which contracts the call center from AT&T, in an attempt to get answers to several questions, including about how the decision to lay off employees was made and if the employees will receive priority if the company decided to rehire in the future.
"On the behalf of the constituents, we are trying to ask some reasonable questions of AT&T and the State Department," Harry Gural, Shea-Porter's chief of staff, said.
Gural said Shea-Porter's office has been thoroughly investigating the layoffs since it was notified last Friday, and the letters are another extension of Shea-Porter seeking to use her office to ask questions on behalf of her constituents.
Gural said the office did learn the Department of State had told AT&T to improve its "utilization rate," which is the amount of time call center representatives spend on the phone, but it is still unclear how that request resulted in the specific number of employees who were laid off.
"How that translates into 178 people is open to dispute," Gural said. "These are the kind of things we are trying to sort out."
Shea-Porter also is seeking a copy of the contract between the Department of State and AT&T in order to better understand the relationship between both the public and private entities involved in the decision, an element that has added more confusion to the process, Gural said.
Following concerns raised by members of the call center's union, the Communications Workers of America Local 1298, Shea-Porter also is seeking information from both AT&T and the State Department about a potential violation of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
The WARN Act requires employers with more than 100 employees to notify employees or union representatives 60 days before a "mass layoff," which is considered either 500 employees or 33 percent of the workforce, according to information on the Department of Labor's website.
Gural said it appears the number of employees that were laid off is less than a third of the workforce, but AT&T has not yet released the exact number of people employed at the call center.
In a letter to AT&T, Shea-Porter also said she is "concerned about the timing of the layoffs" and asked why the layoffs were announced when they were.
CWA Local 1298 union representatives have said they are suspicious about the timing of the layoffs, which also coincide with the ongoing collective bargaining negotiations.
Shea-Porter met Tuesday with AT&T employees and union representatives in her Dover office. During the meeting, she emphasized she would ensure the employees received assistance from state agencies for re-employment, but said she cannot take a position of the layoffs until she has gathered more information.
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