About 600 Optimum employees working at the firm”™s call center in Shelton and a back-office center in Stratford are being laid off by parent company Altice USA. The company blamed a decrease in call volume from customers for the move, adding that those calls will be handled by facilities in the Bronx, Long Island and New Jersey.
The affected employees will remain at Optimum through November.
“Altice USA is committed to Connecticut and to serving the local communities with best-in-class products and service,” the company said in a statement. “Over the last few years, there have been investments and enhancements to our Optimum products and services, making them more reliable and providing more customer service touch points than ever before.
“As a result,” it continued, “we have seen a significant improvement in customer call volume and patterns. As we look to strengthen our operations in the nation”™s most competitive market, we are aligning our contact center organization to meet the current needs of our customers.”
Altice acquired Optimum when it purchased Cablevision earlier this year for $17.7 billion. It currently has more than 18,000 employees in 20 states.
