WORKERS at an Accrington call centre were unfairly dismissed, a judge has ruled.

Sitel UK closed its operation at the Globe Centre on November 2011 with the loss of 250 jobs.

This week, 120 of its former employees had their unfair dismissal claim upheld by employment Judge David Franey.A claim for compensation is now expected to be made.

Members of the class action claimed workers were unfairly dismissed and Sitel failed to consult properly over redundancies.

The Accrington site closed after travel firm Expedia, one of Sitel’s major clients, moved calls to Bangalore, India.

An employment tribunal at Alexandra House, in Manchester, took place in November 2013 and February this year, during which ten of the claimants gave evidence in person.

During the hearing, Sitel regional performance director, Ian Levett, said the company ran a ‘collective consultation’ process as part of its plans to close the site.

He said management made ‘genuine’ efforts to find jobs for staff with other companies and had asked Expedia to extend the contract to December or April.He said it was important not to give staff ‘false hope’ as the decision had been taken to close the site.

All claims rose out of the closure of the Accrington site in November 2011, when its contract with Expedia was terminated.

Sitel UK claimed that members of the Employee Forum were appropriate representatives who had been properly and fully consulted.

In his ruling, Judge Franey said Sitel failed in its duty to consult under the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 and failed to consult with all employee representatives acting for those affected by the proposed dismissals.

The ruling states that the claims of unfair dismissal are ‘well founded’ and were upheld.