YOUNGSTOWN Workers at call center get 60-day layoff notices

A Boardman man wants to lease the center, buy the equipment and increase the work force.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- About 60 workers at a downtown Youngstown call center have been issued 60-day layoff notices, but their employer expects to see them working for a new, locally owned company within a week or two. Workers at OSI Strategic Receivables in the Phar-Mor Center learned recently that the 200-seat center is being sold to a new buyer who wants to hire all the remaining employees, assume the lease and purchase all the equipment.
The prospective new owner is Rob Fox of Boardman, a veteran of the call center industry who managed the downtown center when it was operated by Exterra Credit Recovery, a California debt recovery company.
OSI bought the center in June, and Fox said he started negotiating to buy it in August.
Fox said he's working with the City of Youngstown, Bank One, the federal Small Business Administration and local development agencies. He believes the sale could be complete by the middle of next week.
Rick Saffer, vice president of corporate development for St. Louis, Mo.-based OSI, said its purchase agreement with Fox expired Nov. 15.
Required by labor laws
While OSI expects the deal to conclude within the next two weeks, he said, federal labor laws required the owner to issue the layoff notices to warn workers that the center could be closed in 60 days if the prospective owner can't get its financing.
The OSI site had 120 employees when it changed hands in June, but the work force there has dwindled to half what it was in June. Some were laid off, some were dismissed because of performance problems and many left when they learned the center was for sale.
Fox said he is already lining up business for the center and hopes to increase the work force to 100 soon after he takes ownership. Should the deal with Fox fall through, Saffer said, OSI plans to either sell the center to another buyer or transfer new business of its own to the center.
It is common practice in the call-center industry to sell a fully-operating center, completely equipped and with a trained work force, he said. "That way they get a turnkey operation with fully-trained employees," he said.
vinarsky@vindy.com