THE Alliance and Leicester is to axe around 150 full-time jobs at its Ashford call centre.

The cuts, at the bank's offices at Charter House, mean that full-time equivalent jobs provided by the centre will reduce from around 250 to some 100.

Because many of the employees are part-timers, the employment roll will fall from about 350 to about 150. Employees have been offered voluntary redundancy.

Despite the severity of the cutback employees and their representative, the Communication Workers' Union, recognise that things could have been worse. When Alliance and Leicester announced in the summer that it was reviewing the future of its Ashford centre, in the light of its decision to sell its credit card business to American-owned MBNA, it said closure was an option.

Another factor that prompted the review was that the company's lease on Charter House was due to expire in September 2004.

This week CWU national officer Nigel Cotgrove said tough negotiations with Alliance and Leicester had secured a pledge that a call centre operation would be retained in Ashford.

Under the agreement Alliance and Leicester had pledged to freeze recruitment elsewhere in its group until the end of 2003 and to retain around 150 jobs in Ashford, possibly on a new site in the town, Mr Cotgrove said.