UP TO 70 middle managers are sweating on their jobs as part of an efficiency drive at one of Southampton's biggest employers.

They face four weeks of uncertainty before British Gas cuts 31 team manager posts, saving hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The company employs 1,200 people at its customer contact centre in the St Mary's part of the city, dealing with up to 70,000 phone calls and 23,000 letters a week from across the country.

Each one of the team managers is in charge of up to 12 customer service representatives, and responsibilities include ensuring various targets are met.

Call centre staff at the regional headquarters remain unaffected by the shake-up involving their line managers, who earn about £20,000, plus performance-related bonuses.

It is understood that a 30-day consultation has just begun with office union Unison over the planned redundancies.

One member of staff, who asked not to be named, said: "Morale is very low. The whole building is statistics driven."

Andy Eley, senior operations manager, defended the plan to reduce the centre's head count, which at one point totalled 1,500 last year.

He said: "The 31 team manager posts which we are losing are part of an ongoing business transformation programme across our operations to improve our productivity and efficiency as we introduce new technology and ways of working to enhance further the service we offer our customers."

He added:"We have started a consultation process with the unions, part of which will involve looking at ways we might incorporate these posts into our existing frontline operation."

The centre in Southampton is a vital cog in the UK-wide operations of British Gas, which is owned by energy giant Centrica. It is one of three "super centres" in Britain - the other two being in Leeds and Edinburgh.

The work at Southampton includes dealing with billing enquiries, meter-reading requests, complaints, calls of appreciation and various insurance services.

As well as gas, the company also sells electricity and telephone packages.

Unison was not available for comment.