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Around 29 jobs could be axed at an Irvine call centre.

Stellar, based at the town’s Riverside Business Park, confirmed that the business is undergoing restructuring after a major contract ended.

The firm said that the move was necessary to protect the majority of jobs at the site.

But according to North Ayrshire Council the majority of Stellar employees are set to transfer to Glasgow.

Despite informing the Job Centre of 29 redundancies, Stellar were unable to confirm the extent of the redundancy process this week.

A spokeswoman for Stellar said: “Stellar has undertaken a restructuring of its UK operations following the conclusion of one of our primary customer contracts.

“This is necessary to ensure that we are able to protect the vast majority of our staff positions and remain competitive in an extremely challenging market, whilst continuing to offer our customers the highest level of service.

“Unfortunately, we can confirm that we have been forced to begin a redundancy process with a number of our staff who were employed under this contract and we will be supporting those affected through what we understand will be a difficult time.”

Irvine Job Centre confirmed that Stellar have notified them of 29 redundancies, with PACE (Partnership Action for Continuing Employment) offering support made by Skills Development Scotland, The Department for Work and Pensions and North Ayrshire Council.

A spokesman for the Job Centre said: “The individuals affected will be identified this week and Stellar have agreed that the support offer will be delivered on March 29 by the various support organisations.

“We are hopeful that most of them can be redeployed to other local contact centres.”

A North Ayrshire Council spokeswoman said: “We understand that the majority of Stellar employees will transfer from North Ayrshire to a new employer in Glasgow.

“We understand that some of Stellar’s existing contracts will also transfer to the new employer.

“The council, together with Scottish Enterprise and PACE, are assisting Stellar and we are determined to do everything we can to secure the remaining jobs and hope they will stay within North Ayrshire.

“One of the council’s key priorities is inclusive growth.

“We want to ensure that all sections of the community aspire to achieve and benefit from economic growth, however, setbacks such as this are an issue for the local economy.

“As a council we are ambitious and the creation of jobs remains our top priority.”

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