Tucson: Citigroup to lay off 12% of Tucson Call Center employees

By Dale Quinn

About 2,300 work at call center in UA Science and Tech Park


ARIZONA DAILY STAR 5/14/2010

Citigroup will lay off 271 employees at its Tucson call center on the southeast side by the end of the year, a company spokeswoman said Thursday.

Workers in Citi’s fraud-detection unit and commercial credit-card divisions will be affected by the job cuts, said Janis Tarter, the spokeswoman.

Other Citigroup locations will handle the workload of the Tucson employees. The bulk of the work will move to other sites in the United States, but some will go abroad, Tarter said. She would not be more specific about loca­tions.

She said she expects the transition to begin next month and be completed by the end of the year.

The affected employees were notified Wednesday and will receive severance benefits based on their length of service.

“Employees who are interested can consider open po­sitions at Citi and outside of Citi,” Tarter said. “And we’re working with them to explore those options.”

The site, at 9060 S. Rita Road in the University of Ari­zona’s Science and Technology Park, employs about 2,300 workers, Tarter said.

The job cuts are part of Citi’s efforts to reduce costs and increase efficiency in its consumer-banking opera­tions, Tarter said.

Citigroup’s Tucson call center had seen steady in­creases in employment through 2009, according to the Star 200, the Arizona Daily Star’s annual survey of major employers. When the center opened in 2004, it had 550 employees.

Customer service and collections positions for credit­-card and mortgage-lending businesses will remain at the site, Tarter said.

Pima County’s One Stop employment center will work with the laid-off em­ployees, said Jim Mize, who heads up its employer out­reach program. As of Thurs­day afternoon, though, One Stop hadn’t received much information from Citigroup, Mize said.

While 271 employees rep­resent a significant job loss, Mize said it appears that employees have been given lead time to look for new jobs. Some of the job losses may be absorbed through attrition, as some employ­ees may voluntarily leave their jobs, and laid-off workers can fill those posi­tions, Mize said, based on what he’s seen at other call centers.

Employment in call cen­ters can fluctuate frequent­ly, with some companies shedding jobs and others adding them, Mize said.

Another call center with a Tucson location, APAC Customer Services Inc., which provides customer support for businesses, might be able to absorb some of the job losses, Mize said. That company has re­cently contacted One Stop about job opportunities, he said.

Contact reporter Dale Quinn at 573-4197 or dquinn@azstarnet.com