Foot Locker will close its Oshkosh call center, affecting almost 100 people

Nearly 100 people in Oshkosh will be out of a job in April when a local call center closes its doors.

Foot Locker sent a letter to the state Department of Workforce Development Monday, outlining plans to close the call center, as part of an effort to centralize its North American customer care operations in Wausau. The move comes about three months after the company announced it would shut down its distribution facility in Wausau.

The Oshkosh location will stop operations on April 28. At that time, the company said 95 employees will be laid off. Two employees will be retained through May to help with site closure.

“The entire facility will be closed, all employees at the facility will be affected, and this closure is expected to be permanent,” the company wrote to state officials. “We have provided the appropriate notice to all of the workers who will be affected, including the contact information for the local workforce development board serving their worksite area.”

Foot Locker said those impacted by the layoffs were non-union employees, and have positions in human resources, management and customer service.

It will be the company’s second round of layoffs in Wisconsin. Foot Locker is expected to cut 210 workers from the Wausau distribution center beginning this month. The distribution center will also close in April, but the company plans to retain a call center and some corporate positions in the city.

“We take these types of decisions seriously,” a Foot Locker spokesperson said in an October statement to Wisconsin Public Radio. “We are working with the impacted team members to provide potential opportunities within the company, a competitive severance package, a stay bonus and career services support.”

The company’s new layoff notice was the sixth posted to the state Department of Workforce Development’s website this month, and comes as Wisconsin continues to experience low unemployment.