Denver-based customer service provider TeleTech Holdings Inc. has formally notified Uniontown Mayor James R. Sileo and the state Bureau of Workforce Development that, effective Jan. 31, the company will permanently lay off 99 employees at its Uniontown Mall call center -- with an additional 99 layoffs possible just one day later. The news came via a FedEx-delivered notice delivered to Sileo and John Vogel with the workforce development bureau earlier this month. The decision to move forward with the layoffs is the result of the call center losing one, and possibly two, clients. "Our hope is that new work will be secured for the Uniontown operation, and we are committed to maintaining a substantial presence in Uniontown," said TeleTech spokesman Carol Hahn. She would not, however, release current employment figures at Uniontown, citing company policy. The most recent state employment figures for the company place its employee roster at roughly 900. Those employees affected by the layoff have been notified of job openings at TeleTech's Morgantown, W.Va., facility, Hahn said. Acting Uniontown Mayor Robert Cerjanec said the brief notice from TeleTech Senior Vice President of Human Resources, John Simon was all he knew about the company's plans. "Is this (layoffs) due to seasonal changes in business; is this due to the fact the work is not needed, I don't know," Cerjanec said. "The letter is so brief and so vague you can't tell." He added he doesn't believe TeleTech is looking to leave Uniontown. Cerjanec has been filling in for Mayor Sileo, who has been convalescing from back surgery. The layoffs certainly are not good news for Fayette County which, with an October unemployment rate of 6.9 percent, had the highest percentage of unemployed within the six-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area. The rate also was among the highest statewide. Amid great fanfare, TeleTech settled into the former Hess Department Store space behind Uniontown Mall in February 1998. A Fayette County native, Joseph Livingston, then TeleTech's senior vice president and chief operating officer, played a major role in bringing his company to southwestern Pennsylvania. Livingston has since left the company; his name no longer is listed as an executive on its Web site. Initially, TeleTech executives predicted the call center would employ some 600 within three years. That goal was shattered on the positive side during its initial year of operation, with at one time more than 900 employed onsite, serving as conduits, go-betweens connecting TeleTech clients, such as Best Buy and Circuit City, with their customers. However, the call center business has been extremely competitive, with industry employment subject to sudden swings up or down, depending on client movement. TeleTech, founded in 1982, is among the largest call center companies in the country. Currently, it operates some 30 centers in both the United States and Canada, along with another 31 facilities in Europe, Latin America and the Asia Pacific region. Revenues in 2002 for the first time went over the $1 billion mark, but the company recorded a net loss of $16.8 million or 22 cents a diluted share.

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