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Desperate LV Brings In Call Centre Staff to Lobby Members for Deal

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Bournemouth, UK, Dec, 2021 -- LV has stepped up its campaign to persuade members to back its controversial sale to US private equity sharks Bain Capital.

With less than two weeks left before the ballot on the proposed deal closes, the Daily Mail can reveal that the life insurer has hired external call centres to contact policyholders about the vote.

LV has also sent out a letter to members from Greg Batterbee, the head of its ‘employee consultative forum’, claiming Bain’s bid offered the ‘best outcome’ for its 1,500 staff.

The moves were branded ‘desperate’ by critics.

Batterbee’s letter insinuated that LV members were only upset by the deal because they wanted more money from Bain. It urged voters to ‘focus on the wider picture and what it will mean for the LV brand and people’.

Yet it ignored the fact that if the deal goes through, jobs will be lost as LV invests in technology and automating back-office tasks.

Batterbee wrote that staff ‘have been somewhat surprised and disappointed by the intensity and ferocity of the media coverage regarding the proposed transaction with Bain Capital’.

He went on: ‘LV is a significant employer in the Bournemouth, Hitchin and Exeter areas, and Bain Capital have committed to all these locations.

The other bids could have resulted in large numbers of immediate job losses and closure of sites – a less-than-desirable outcome.

In contrast Bain Capital want to provide the opportunity for people to be part of a growing business.’

The sale of LV to Bain would see the 178-year-old insurer stripped of its mutual status, meaning it would no longer be run for the benefit of its members, who have until December 10 to vote on the deal.

LV, formerly Liverpool Victoria, was founded in 1843 to help the city’s poor give their families decent burials.

Tory MP Kevin Hollinrake accused LV bosses of ‘patronising and condescending’ members.

LV members have contacted the Mail to raise concerns that external call centres have contacted them on behalf of the company.

Malcolm Dodd, who has been an LV member for around 14 years, was called last week and asked whether he had received the voting pack.

He was also asked which way he would be voting. ‘I think it’s wrong they are angling to find out which way people have voted,’ he said.

An LV spokesman said this was standard practice, and all data protection rules had been complied with.

But the company refused to reveal how much members’ money was spent on the call centres, even after facing criticism over a lack of transparency about the £43m bill racked up in fees related to the transaction.

Labour MP Gareth Thomas, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on mutuals, said: ‘These measures feel like yet another desperate effort to sell a deal to members which no genuinely independent expert is recommending.’

An LV spokesman said: ‘As part of our comprehensive programme of member engagement ahead of the vote on December 10, we wanted to contact our membership to ensure firstly that they have received their Member Vote Pack and secondly that they have all of the information they need to make an informed decision, help them with any questions they had about the process.’

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Posted by Veronica Silva Cusi, news correspondent
Source: https://todayuknews.com

Date Posted: Thursday, December 2, 2021



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