CCS lays off more than 60 workers

Photo: Peter L. McGuire

SHUT DOWN — Although the main sign at CCS claims there are jobs available, employees were greeted with the notice on the door advising them that they no longer had a job.

Photo: Peter McGuire

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OXFORD — A CCS call center that operated in Oxford since 2003 abruptly closed its doors on April 11, laying off more than 60 workers without warning.

Former employees said it was a complete surprise when, at 3:30 p.m., they were told that they were being laid off.

One former employee, who wished to remain unidentified, said the closure came as a complete shock.

Another former employee, Janice Wormwood, worked at CCS along with her boyfriend. She says the suddenness of the closing meant that they had no time to prepare for unemployment, or to look for other work.

"We didn't have any forewarning," said Wormwood.

The fact that both she and her boyfriend worked at the call center makes the closing particularly difficult for them.

"We have no income in our house now," she said.

According to reports, representatives from CCS Global Holdings, the company that owned the Oxford call center, the closing was a "business decision," and that representatives of the company could would not elaborate on the reason for the shutdown.

One representative said that the company's other locations in New Hampshire and Massachusetts would not be affected.

Both former employees said they'd heard that the decision to close was a cost- saving measure.

According to Wormwood,  that it is a poor excuse.

"A lot of us were bringing in lots of money for them," she said.

Wormwood sad her boyfriend agreed that for the entire time they worked at the call center, the volume of business remained high — so the sudden, unannounced shutdown was particularly surprising. 

They said that the company had just updated the center's computer software and received new PCs in January in order to make the center more efficient, so they didn't understand why the company would close.

"Maybe they were getting ready to clean house," said Wormwood.

Employees were told that they would be paid in full for the hours they worked up to the shutdown, and be given information as to how to apply for unemployment, and COBRA, a Federal health insurance assistance program.

Glen Holmes, director of the Western Maine Economic Development Council (WMEDC), said that any time the area loses jobs it makes things "difficult." Holmes remained positive that other businesses would move into the area "in the near future" to replace the lost CCS positions. 

Holmes said that he would like to have a better explanation as to why CCS decided to shut down the facility.

"Obviously their other operations seem to be doing fine ... they made it clear that [the shutdown] had nothing to do with the people they were working with," he said.

CCS representatives repeatedly declined to comment on the matter.