A letter sent to workers has revealed that a major online clothing retailer is set to cut more jobs at its customer care centre in Leavesden.

The Watford Observer understands night-time employees at ASOS’s centre in Aerodrome Way face redundancy, with a collective consultation now under way.

ASOS has refused to officially comment but the Observer has seen both a letter and email sent out by senior staff at ASOS informing employees that their jobs are under threat.

More than 150 people work night-time rotations at the customer care centre, dealing with customer enquiries and complaints, with nights covering the hours between 8pm and 7am.

The number of people who will lose their jobs is unknown.

In a letter to staff whose jobs are at risk, ASOS says its global expansion has led to further discussions about how the company manages its customer care operation, particularly at night.

The letter refers to the “changing nature of its customers”, many of whom are “requiring help from different time zones and in different languages”.

The letter also days customer demand during night hours is “not consistent, leading to regular periods of low productivity and proportionally high running costs”.

ASOS says in the letter it has reached a decision to outsource its night-time operations to a third party.

Employees have been told the impact of the proposal is that their current roles are “at risk of redundancy”.

ASOS is now entering into a period of collective consultation.

ASOS’s letter to night staff makes clear that if following consultation, it is clear an employee’s redundancy cannot be avoided, and it has not been possible to secure alternative employment, their employment will be terminated on the grounds of redundancy.

Last summer, the Observer reported that a number of jobs could be lost at the customer care centre in Leavesden.

Bosses had told employees “tough decisions” needed to be made. Last April’s financial results showed that profits had dropped by 87 per cent in one year.

The source has added that some management roles and some day teams were lost last summer, but customer care advisors were not affected. These redundancies were referred to as ‘Phase 1’ and this week’s news is understood to be ‘Phase 2’.

In this week’s letter, ASOS says the work undertook last summer “enabled the company to improve the performance of customer care and more broadly the wider business”.