AOL layoffs 100 at OKC call center

<br>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ About 100 workers who moderate AOL's message boards and screen for objectionable online content will be laid off by the end of March, AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham said. <br><br>The

Thursday, February 12th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ About 100 workers who moderate AOL's message boards and screen for objectionable online content will be laid off by the end of March, AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham said.

The jobs of the Community Action Team will be moved to other America Online call centers, and possibly overseas, Graham said Wednesday.

The layoffs will leave AOL with about 1,000 people at its Oklahoma City call center.

``This is a planned part of our ongoing efforts to adjust AOL's member services organization to more closely align with our business goals and customer needs,'' Graham said.

Two AOL Community Action Team workers, who asked that their names not be used, told The Oklahoman that AOL has been moving nonsales jobs such as billing and technical support to lower-cost countries such as India, the Philippines and South Africa.

Oklahoma City workers previously had been told that because of the sensitive nature of their jobs, they were not at risk for transfer to international centers.

The workers expressed concern that international employees would not understand some of the American slang expressions or cultural references they are trained to screen for in AOL chat rooms.

``My job was to protect kids,'' said one worker. ``They're sending our jobs overseas, where their rules are not the same. If they don't understand our culture, how can they keep the kids safe? I understand the corporate need to save money, but they're missing the moral point.''

Graham said AOL provides extensive training to all of its customer service representatives.

``We stand by the ability of anyone in the member services organization who has gone through the same kind of training that everybody else goes through in order to deal with these specific and sometimes sensitive issues,'' he said.