UP to 70 jobs could go at a former Kays call centre after bosses announced their plans to “shocked” staff yesterday.

The overhaul of shift patterns at the former Kays, now Shop Direct in Newtown Road, Worcester, leaves staff with three choices.

They can receive further training so they can work similar hours to the ones they now work, move their shift to later in the day and weekends or accept redundancy.

A spokesman for the Shop Direct Group confirmed there could be 70 job losses but said if staff were willing to adapt or retrain there would be no job losses at all.

Staff have 90 days from today to decide what they want to do.

The jobs of about 278 call centre staff will be affected, which 70 of which are based at the Worcester centre.

The reforms have been proposed because Shop Direct is changing from a catalogue to an online business.

The potential job losses are another blow to the former Kays after the last handful of workers left the catalogue firm’s warehouse in February last year.

The firm, which once employed 6,000 people, has been a part of Worcester’s history for the last 120 years.

A member of staff tipped-off your Worcester News about the potential call centre cuts following a staff meeting on Monday morning when the plans were first announced.

She said: “I’m really upset. I have worked there nearly 25 years and haven’t really known anything else. It was quite a shock.

“There were no rumours. They told us they were over-staffed in the morning and want to get people in evenings and weekends. Changes in shifts mean it is going to be difficult for single parents.”

Since 2005, online sales have increased significantly, from 18 per cent of products sold to more than 50 per cent today.

This figure is expected to rise still further to at least 70 per cent of total sales by 2011.

Group chief executive Mark Newton-Jones said: “We have seen a progressive change in the way customers engage with our contact centres. As a result, we need to re-align our resources to meet changing customer demand.”