CALL centre workers involved in a multi- million pound buy-out were today given hope their jobs may be safe.

CALL centre workers involved in a multi- million pound buy-out were today given hope their jobs may be safe.

New bosses at Barclaycard insist no decision has been taken about the future of the centre in Cumbernauld despite staff fears of mass sackings.

The Evening Times told last night how 950 workers at the Goldfish call centre were worried for their future.

But today their new bosses said any decision wouldn't be taken until later in the year after they finalise buying the Goldfish credit card business.

Barclaycard is expected to complete the £35million deal for the business, which includes the Morgan Stanley credit card, in early summer.

Barclaycard will then take on 1.7million extra customers - around 800,000 Goldfish credit card holders and another 900,000 Morgan Stanley credit card holders, as well as the staff at Cumbernauld.

Barclaycard today confirmed it hopes to complete the buy-out by June but officials said it was too early to give any job guarantees to workers in the North Lanarkshire.

Its spokesman said: "We have not made any firm decision about the business.

"We have not decided to close the call centre, that decision has definitely not been made.

"We are acquiring 1.7m additional customers and we require people to look after them.

"At the moment there is no reason why we would consider closing the call centre. We don't have enough call centre staff to deal with so many new customers."

The admission comes despite Barclays operating several call centres in India as well as locations at Stockton on Teeside, Liverpool and Northampton.

It's possible the Cumbernauld workforce could be asked to take on new roles by helping to promote other Barclay brands such as insurance and mortgages.

The new owners also stress they are buying a business they want to grow, not shrink.

New York-based Morgan Stanley owned the Goldfish brand until it was hived off.

It is now owned by US giant Discover Financial Services, one of the biggest credit card issuers in the US.

Barclaycard's chief executive Antony Jenkins said: "Barclaycard is one of the largest card issuers in the UK with acknowledged expertise in risk management, customer data management and marketing.

"Discover's UK credit card business has similar credit characteristics to our existing UK business.

"The combination provides an attractive opportunity to deploy our expertise across a larger number of cards and customers."

Union official Hugh Scullion of Unite, which has expert knowledge of the call centre industry, has warned that the buy-out will trigger rationalisation and warned that is likely to result in job losses at Cumbernauld.