VHA picks Tassie for call centre HQ

Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett today announced a coup over the Queensland Government in striking a deal with mobile telco VHA to house its national call centre in the state from June 2010.

The deal struck means that around 400 VHA staff at Vodafone's call centre in Kingston, Tasmania will keep their jobs, Bartlett announced in State Parliament today.

"In recent months VHA have been considering moving the call centre and those jobs to Brisbane. What a devastating blow that would be for the workers of that call centre and the local economy," he said.

Bartlett said the Tasmanian Labor Government had designed a package for VHA to retain Vodafone's existing call centre in Kingston, and for it to make VHA's national call centre.

"The State Government is finalising with the company a package of measures to provide assistance in a number of areas," said Bartlett. Details of the package would be made public when it was finalised, he added.

"This is a great day for Tasmania. 400 jobs have been saved. But not only that, with VHA's commitment we will create an extra 100 jobs when it brings the customer service operations of both Vodafone and 3 Mobile under one roof at Kingston from June next year," he said.

Bartlett said that 500 jobs had now been guaranteed for the next seven years. Meanwhile 3's call centre in Toowong, Brisbane will be moved away from the location commencing in June 2010. VHA said in a statement that existing roles would not change until then.

From March 2010, the Brisbane facility will become VHA's Financial Operations Centre for credit and revenue collection, VHA said in a statement.

ZDNet.com.au is awaiting a response from VHA on the number of call centre staff currently at its Brisbane call centre.