BRITAIN’S biggest dating agency has been branded heartless for sacking its Guernsey-based workforce and allegedly reneging on a promise of redundancy pay. Angry workers were told yesterday morning that the multi-million pound Dateline agency was closing its local office in the Lower Pollet at the end of April and relocating services to Cheshire.

Twelve full-time staff – 10 women and two men – will lose their jobs.

Those who have been there more than two years claimed that Dateline had broken an earlier promise to give them three months’ redundancy pay if it closed.

Staff, many of whom have young families and mortgages to pay, were considering unfair dismissal claims.

Dateline has been operating in Guernsey for five-and-a-half years.

‘We were told today they are pulling the plug on the Guernsey office. At Christmas we were promised that if the company closed in Guernsey, we would all be given three months’ redundancy pay if we had been here over two years. Today, we were told we would get none,’ said

distraught mother of five Audrey Kirk, 31, the customer services supervisor.

‘We are extremely upset – we have mortgages to pay and families to feed. Most of us are working mums. I’m absolutely disgusted by the way we have been treated – we have shown loyalty and have committed to the company and then we are told we don’t need you any more, thank you and goodbye,’ she said.

‘We are very disgruntled and morale is rock bottom. We have been a brilliant working team and management has always been fine and we have always enjoyed coming to work.

‘We have had quite a few success stories that have ended in marriage but now they have said they can’t afford to operate an office in Guernsey.’

Many of the women’s husbands were furious but one was too upset to tell hers the news.

‘Everybody’s plans are up in the air and some are considering whether to return tomorrow. A lot have already been on the phone to temping agencies,’ said Mrs Kirk.

Louise Robins, 40, who works full-time shifts in customer services, said: ‘I have a son and grandson at home so his mother can go to work. I don’t know how to tell my husband yet.

‘We were guaranteed three months’ redundancy pay and we are getting nothing. We might not even get our holiday pay and we are entitled to 25 days a year.

‘I am very upset and we have been let down. I need to work because I have a mortgage to pay. I’m not going to find it easy to get another job that suits my hours. I have been crying and feel so weak,’ she said.

Pauline Phillips, 62, was the only one still working in the post room after five staff left over the past 12 months.

‘We knew it was coming but not the way it did. I was hoping to stay here until I retired. My partner and I pay a very high rent on a flat, it was my wage that helped pay the rent and the extras,’ she said.

‘Everybody is deflated and I don’t know what my partner is going to say.’

Supervisor Aimee Golden, 24, said: ‘It’s not a bolt out of the blue but it could have been handled a lot better. It’s heartless the way we have been treated.’

The local office is open from 8am to 5pm Mondays to Fridays as well as Monday and Friday nights and Saturdays from 9am to 1pm.

The staff operate Dateline’s membership, deal with members’

e-mails and all data entries.

Staff said member numbers had dropped dramatically from 42,000 a year ago to 16,000 recently. There were only a handful of local customers.

Dateline has an office in Cheshire with its sister company, Club Sirius, and it will take over the Guernsey customer service operation. Its parent company is OneSaturday.

‘The nature of the dating industry has changed significantly over the past year with a global move to Internet-based dating,’ said director of operations Rachel Basger.

‘As a result, OneSaturday plc has taken the decision to enhance the Dateline service to ensure that the company is positioned to take an active and leading role in this changed market environment,

‘For this reason, and to ensure that the Dateline brand remains at the forefront of the dating industry, OneSaturday is relocating its Guernsey operation.

‘Dateline will join the other OneSaturday brands, Club Sirius and Elite Introductions, at the company’s head office in Cheshire.

‘This will enable Dateline to take full advantage of the considerable existing technical resources at this location,’ she said.

‘OneSaturday would like to thank Dateline’s Guernsey staff for their professionalism, dedication and for their contribution to the success of Dateline International over the last few years.’

* It was revealed at an industrial tribunal last week that former director Guy Morris had to walk out on Dateline because of unreasonable threats and bullying. He won his case.