Call center operator West Corp. may lay off 176 in Hampton

West Corp. might lay off 176 employees, or nearly one-third of the staff, at its Hampton call center, a company executive said today.

The telecommunications company filed a notice with the state announcing that 176 layoffs would begin by Aug. 30.

But the company is trying to salvage those jobs, said David Pleiss, vice president of investor and public relations for West, which is based in Omaha, Neb.

The Hampton center is losing work not because of the economy, he said, but because of the “changing business needs” of a client.

Under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, law, which governs notice of job reductions and plant closings, companies must file notices of significant job losses 60 days before they take effect.

“We’re doing everything we can right now to add a client or expand an existing client relationship,” Pleiss said. But “there was no guarantee there will be work for them to do, so we had to file the WARN notice.”

Most of those affected would be customer service agents, he said.

The Hampton office, one of West’s 47 centers, had about 580 workers as of March, Pleiss said. It has been in operation since 1996.