It looks like Call Centre Giant Star Tek is shutting down one of its Canadian centres while upping their presence in Costa Rica.
“StarTek is establishing a presence for the long term in Costa Rica and there is plenty of opportunity for career growth especially for this first group of employees who will pioneer the site”, said Ryan Carey, site director for StarTek in Heredia.
In Cornwall Ontario, the company also just announced plans to expand operations hiring 150 workers, and raising their pay rates by $2.00.
While the company has not provided reasons for closing in Thunder Bay, its new operations in other parts of the world where they are expanding may be part of the reason.”
No news about any cuts in the Cornwall facility and as of press time we have yet to hear from Star Tek here in Cornwall. Hopefully the local facility will have a comment for us.
What do you think Cornwall? Feel free to post your comments below.
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I think this is a sign of the times. Everywhere, manufacturers and service providers are moving their account resolution staff to foreign countries where the labor is much cheaper for them. Obviously there is a problem here in Canada and that is WE ARE GROSSLY OVERPAID! Remember when you could buy a new Chev-Ford-Dodge car or pickup in the $2-3000 range? Today these same vehicles cost in the range of $30-50000 for basically the same amount of metal (probably less today) so where is the high cost coming from? Salaries! Some salaries are obscene! We have the unions to thank for that! Unions that scare away Canadian businesses so that they move to India, Costa Rica, or wherever! Thats where Star-Tek is going….to where they can make money!
Um no Stan, “We” are not grossly overpaid. Quite the opposite actually. But there are “SOME” that are grossly overpaid and that I can agree with.
But its a sign of the times. Its the same thing with Dell moving their service to India/Phillipines/etc. Its not that they don’t want to pay their employees up here. Its just that in those countries, they can GROSSLY UNDERPAY their employees and get away with it a lot easier than they ever can over here. This is the real problem.
The employees at Startek in Canada and the US, are quite grossly underpaid for the crap they have to take, and that is a very known fact if you ever worked in any of those big call centers. Stressed employees to the max. I know I spent almost a year trying to get over anxiety attacks that were basically brought on from working in call centers. All these call centers try to do is squeeze blood from a stone and all their employees are to them are numbers. No matter how the call centers try to sugarcoat it, this is the way it is.
Hey Stan..You think $10-$12 is GROSSLY OVERPAID…how much do you pay for Rent or Mortgage? How many kids do you have? On average of 35hrs a week at even the upper hourly wage of $12 gives you a gross income per month of $1,680 x 12 =$20,160 BEFORE TAXES.
How do you figure less then $20,000 a year is GROSSLY OVERPAID. That’s borderline POVERTY DUDE!
Hey Shelly, for what it’s worth I don’t think Star Tek employees are overpaid. I think it’s the opposite. It’s a hard grueling, and mostly thankless job.
Shelly, I’m not a DUDE!
The canadian dollar is worth more than the US now a days, its not the employees that are over payed its the complanies that want to charge more. Those people who make money want more money and more work for less pay. I have a big family to feed and a huge rent to pay. Did I make up the prices I pay out every month. And Thunderbay is closing wow we did not hear about that ..
There is obviously more than one “Stan” that posts here on CFN
Stan: your take on this is hillarious…my sister works at a call centre, and can barely afford rent…you must be a conservative, only they would blame the working class…what we need is a government that protects Canadian jobs, instead of creating more wealth for large corporations.
It’s pretty bad when all of our jobs our going to foreign countries. No one care’s about the people calling in and that they don’t like to speak to foreign people on the phone. It’s all about the money. The less they have to pay out the better.