Virgin Media in Swansea

Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:20 pm on 9 May 2018.

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Photo of David Lloyd David Lloyd Plaid Cymru 3:20, 9 May 2018

It's fair to say it's been a huge, devastating blow to Swansea—772 jobs, or 800 in round figures, lost, and a knock-on effect on dozens of families locally. My first question is: where can we signpost individual workers who are getting in touch with us as Assembly Members expecting us to have some details to hand with regard to what they do know? I'd be grateful for some practical advice like that to start off with, and I'd be grateful, Cabinet Secretary, for assistance in directing these people, who are in a distressed state now, to the right sort of advice.

I won't rehearse the arguments that others have brought forward, but in terms of proactivity from Welsh Government in these situations, we're aware, obviously, that large amounts of the Welsh economy are based on call centres—call centres largely run by large private businesses. I was just wondering how, as Welsh Government, you are developing relationships with those same big businesses so that there's some sort of empathy, or some sort of working behind the scenes, before we have these huge announcements that, all of a sudden, 800 jobs are going and nobody knows about it—least of all you to know about it. You discovered it the same time that the rest of us did, or as some of our workers did in Swansea—they discovered it from the media.

I would hope there would be some proactivity behind the scenes. It's not without warning. We had the Tesco call centre losing 1,000 jobs from Cardiff last year. We all discovered it at the same time, when it was announced in the media. We were asking then: what about some proactivity? What's the role of Government here in supporting people, or at least working things out before the large balloon goes up and then we have to sort it out there and then? So, in terms of just some more detail on how you're developing those relationships with these large private companies so that we can do something proactively to help our people—. And in terms of alternative jobs, I would press again that we do need alternative jobs, as Mike Hedges has alluded to, in the Swansea area in particular. We've talked a lot about the tidal lagoon, but it's desperately, seriously required now— quality jobs in Swansea bay because we are losing jobs like this all of the time. Diolch yn fawr.