British Gas staff booze it up at two-day £20,000 'training' bash while customers struggle to pay bills

Customer services employees enjoy boozy two-day junket after being told how to squeeze the energy firm’s latest 9.2 per cent price hike out of struggling householders

It’s a gas: for energy firm staff

British Gas customer services staff party the night away at a £20,000 two-day boozy “training” knees-up.

More than 120 employees let their hair down at a luxury hotel after being taught how to squeeze the energy firm’s latest 9.2 per cent price hike out of struggling householders.

In scenes that will sicken the firm’s millions of customers, they tucked into a lavish four-course dinner and downed dozens of bottles of wine – all paid for out of spiralling company profits.

Before raucously cheering on colleagues in a fancy dress talent contest, they were given a rousing pep talk by Director of Customer Operations Matt Idle, who masterminded the “training” event.

Mr Idle, the high-earning head of billing, ­collection and debt management, wanted to fire up staff responsible for ensuring people pay their bills on time.

The Sunday Mirror were tipped off about the bash, thought to have cost £20,000, by a disgusted British Gas worker.

Last night our video and photographic evidence sparked uproar from ­organisations battling for customers’ rights and ­vulnerable pensioners unable to meet the crippling price rises imposed by Britain’s biggest energy provider.

Dot Gibson, general secretary of the National Pensioners Convention, said: “This is a slap in the face to people ­struggling to keep their homes warm this winter.”

And Marc Gander of the Consumer Action Group said: “We have British Gas bleating about having to levy the latest increase because of green tariffs and wholesale costs and yet they have money to spend on a jolly.

“People will feel very offended to find an element of the price rise being used for this.” The Office of National Statistics says there were 24,000 “excess winter deaths” between December 2011 and March 2012.

Boozy: Staff at hotel bar

Experts estimate more than 7,000 pensioners died in that time because their homes were too cold.
The statistics for December 2012 to March 2013, due this week, are expected to be worse.

But last Tuesday, these figures seemed far from the minds of British Gas staff who gathered at the four-star Hinckley Island Hotel, near Leicester, where rooms can cost up to £150-a-night.

Workers, understood to be directors and team leaders in the firm’s customer ­operations department, attended training sessions during the day on how to collect customers’ increased charges promptly.

On a day when temperatures plummeted to below freezing, with warnings of two weeks of ice and frost to come, the staff were also given tips on dealing with complaints from consumers angry at the huge price rise.

Then at 7pm the bash began in the hotel’s Triumph bar. There was nothing in the hotel to point out British Gas was hosting a conference.

After an hour, workers walked to the hotel’s plush conference room, the London Suite, where 12 tables each seating ten people were laid with silver cutlery and crystal glasses. The menu offered soup or fish cocktail, followed by a choice of beef, chicken, pork, or vegetable Wellington, and creme caramel or chocolate torte.

During the meal, they downed more than 70 bottles of wine as well as bottled beers and spirits before the fancy dress talent show got the party in full swing.

Acts consisted of six executives dressed as Superman followed by a group as the Village People who sang YMCA.

Finally, workers wearing afro wigs and gold dresses performed Motown songs.

Turn-off: Motown mockery

When the performances ended, Mr Idle– a Cambridge graduate who has worked for the energy giant’s parent company Centrica since joining as financial controller from WH Smith in 2002 – returned to the hotel bar with his staff.

They carried on downing beer and wine as well as Jagermeister Bomb shots.

One fellow guest said of the gathering: “Some of them were clearly drunk. They were very loud.”

The group drank on until the early hours, despite having to attend role-play sessions the next day, designed to help them assist customers struggling to pay bills.

It is understood British Gas has staged two similar events for the same customer operations department in the last few months.

More than 800 staff are thought to have attended one at Manchester’s Old Trafford where actors played customers unhappy with price hikes and bad service.

The “customers” interrupted a lavish dinner to make mock complaints and staff had to resolve them.
An outraged insider at the firm said: “It’s amazing the leadership of this company is happy to squander money on things like this while putting up customer bills.

Raucous: The show compere

“Tens of thousands of our customers are struggling to heat their homes, but all these well-paid senior managers are in luxury hotels enjoying food and drink and putting on a pantomime.

|The whole thing will have cost tens of thousands of pounds.”

Yesterday the British Gas price rise came into effect, putting an extra burden on almost eight million households.

The 9.2 per cent dual-fuel rise ­encompasses an 8.4 per cent hike in gas prices and a 10.4 per cent increase in ­electricity prices.

It means the average annual household fuel bill will go up by £123 to £1,444. After the rise was announced last month, David Cameron urged consumers to switch suppliers for the best deal.

Energy Minister Ed Davey described it as “extremely disappointing news”.

British Gas immediately issued a ­statement blaming the cost of buying energy on the global markets, delivering gas and electricity to customers’ homes, and the government’s ‘green’ levies.

The firm’s Residential Energy chief Ian Peters said at the time: “I know these are difficult times for many customers. We haven’t taken this decision lightly.”

A British Gas spokesman said: “We provided our staff with dinner at the end of a two-day training course. Afterwards, they bought their own drinks and provided their own entertainment in a fundraising exercise that raised more than £1,000 for an impoverished school in India.”

Mirror