EnergyAustralia says it is closing its call centre in Melbourne’s north-east, putting up to 300 jobs on the line.

Staff at the call centre in Mill Park say their jobs are being relocated to the Philippines from next year.

A small number of positions will reportedly move to EnergyAustralia’s other offices in Victoria.

The Hong Kong-owned electricity generator and retailer said it was a challenging time for the energy sector.

“With a smaller real estate footprint in Melbourne, the move will save money which will enable us to provide a more competitive service to our customers,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.

The company says it has given employees plenty of time to decide if they will try to stay.

“In September next year, 10 months from now we will close our Mill Park contact centre ... that gives us time to support our people, whether they stay with the business or move on,” the spokesperson said.

“It's not a decision we took lightly.”

Australian Services Union secretary Richard Duffy was intending to have a briefing with the company over the weekend.

“It's a bit of a shock to us, in terms of the information,” he said.

“The best case would be that we'd be able to keep the jobs in Australia, we'd be able to work with the company to get to the position where they are still viable in Australia.”

Mr Duffy said the company had told workers they would have to move to Geelong, where it ran another office.

The union says it is not an option for many people to uproot their families.

“Any Australian company that's making money in Australia to then think just to save a couple of dollars on wages ... by moving jobs to cheaper labour countries, it's not something many Australians would support,” he said.

“They've got an enterprise agreement in place, and through that process there was no discussion of off-shoring jobs.”

The union says the Victorian Government should assist the company in keeping the jobs in Australia.