Carnegie Campus-based R Fundraising, which helps charities raise money, made the announcement last Tuesday lunchtime – payday was Friday.

The Dunfermline branch will see 82 jobs go as the first step of a major restructure of the Fundraising Initiatives Group, R Fundraising’s parent company.

The agency will “shortly be placed into administration”.

One member of staff, who did not wish to be named, was “disgusted” at being kept in the dark.

“To be kept out of the loop for so long is deplorable,” he said. “One of my colleagues was sobbing when she phoned me.

“They announced it when people had come in for their shifts.

“To be told second-hand from someone who was really distraught was not the best way to find out I’ve lost my job.” He continued, “Nobody is getting paid on Friday. We’ve been issued with a letter but I haven’t really looked at it so far, I’m disgusted.

“Unfortunately I don’t have savings and I’m down to about £20 so I’ve got financial commitments I’ll not be able to meet because I’m not getting paid.

“Other people are in the same boat, how are they going to cope? It’s going to have a huge impact on everyone to a person. Because it’s minimum wage, budgets are very tight.

“Some people I’ve spoken to are having to sell things on eBay just to pay the bills.

“There’s a lot of families that have been impacted, there’s a couple that work there that are due to have a baby soon.” The staff were called in to a meeting this week and hit with the bad news, but the employee told the Press that bosses could have handled the situation better.

“About 1-1.30pm on Tuesday the fund-raisers were asked to log off and were told they had been made redundant, effective immediately,” he said.

“They must have known this was coming but they still had staff going in on good faith.

“I know they had a lot of people that had to be contacted but it’s not a good way of handling it.” He added, “The sad thing is that although I was a salaried fund-raiser, I always wanted to do my very best for the charities I was speaking on behalf of.

“I know fund-raising has got some bad press recently but to hear little snippets of people’s lives and having them share that was a great thing.

“It felt nice to try and help other people and it was a lovely thing when people wanted to donate and help.” The news of the closure comes within a week of the demise of GoGen, another fund-raising telephone agency which was embroiled in controversy after reports of callers pressurising and hounding targeted individuals.

The statement released by Fundraising Initiatives Group read, “In the first step of its restructure, the board has decided that current market conditions have given it no choice but to close telephone fundraising agency R Fundraising as its position has become untenable.

“The board announced earlier today (Tuesday) that it is with regret that R Fundraising Limited will shortly be taking steps to be placed into administration, with a total of 99 staff being made redundant – 82 in Dunfermline and 17 in Manchester.” Hamish Horton, group managing director, commented, “The Fundraising Initiatives Group is ready to be reshaped and sharpened in the next phase of its strategic development. It’s an opportunity to overhaul the entire group, looking at core strengths, sales and acquisitions.

“We will be making a number of strategically phased changes in the coming months with a focus on delivering a service offering that is driven by innovation and technology, enabling fundraising to explore new opportunities.

“At the same time, it is deeply regrettable that we begin our restructure journey with the necessary closure of R Fundraising.

“We are conscious that the fund-raising sector is facing change and some very difficult challenges hitting telephone fundraising in particular. We have had to make tough decisions.”