Western Union employees describe a significant consolidation underway at the company’s Douglas County headquarters in recent weeks.
But Western Union officials respond that the company is bringing in other positions as it moves some out and that the local headcount is steady at about 1,100.
That’s the same level it was a year ago, said spokesman Tom Fitzgerald.
“The restructuring has resulted in some positions being pushed closer to the market, while other positions suitable to the headquarters office have been brought to Denver,” he said. “So far, it is pretty much a flat situation.”
Western Union said in May that it would thin its management ranks by 175 and shift 550 operational jobs through facility closures, consolidation and the opening of a new regional center in Europe.
Fitzgerald said the current personnel moves are related to that announcement.
Western Union chief financial officer Scott Scheirman, in a conference call last month, said Western Union expects to save $50 million this year and $70 million a year in 2012 and beyond from the restructuring.
So far, metro Denver appears to have been spared the brunt of the reductions. But some of the job relocations aren’t happening until this summer or the end of the year.
Some Denver jobs are headed to a “Center for Excellence” being established in Vilnius, Lithuania.
An ad for those jobs is seeking people who speak Czech, German, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, French, Italian, Swedish or Estonian to staff a help desk.
And one source said some area jobs are being eliminated, only to be reposted as open under a different and lower-paying title.
Some of the uncertainties about Denver’s future as Western Union’s home base relate to Hikmet Ersek’s taking over as chief executive from Christina Gold in September.
Ersek relocated his family from Austria to Denver and has worked to calm fears that he might favor a more cosmopolitan locale.
A relocation would strip Colorado of its second-largest public company in market value and add to the exodus of Fortune 500 companies from the state.
With more than 445,000 agents operating in 200 countries across the globe, Western Union is the world’s largest provider of money-transfer services and one of the globe’s most recognized brands.
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com
