22/09/2004

Norwich Union offshoring will see 150 UK posts axed

Up to 950 jobs with the Norwich Union are to be moved to India and Sri Lanka in an offshoring move that will see around 150 compulsory redundancies in the UK, the insurers parent company Aviva has announced today.

Seventy jobs will go in Norwich and 60 are expected to go in York. The remaining 20 compulsory redundancies will be across other Norwich Union locations.

The company said that "previous experience" had shown that most of the UK job reductions could be achieved through "normal staff turnover, redeployment and retraining".

In a statement the company said it would "do all it can to minimise compulsory redundancies by redeploying staff to alternative roles".

Gary Withers, Norwich Union Life’s chief executive, said: "We recognise that this is a period of great uncertainty and will do everything we can to support staff during this time and ensure that they are kept fully informed throughout the process. We have a successful track record of redeployment with offshoring and as a result we will minimise the impact of redundancies."

Today's decision builds on the 3,700 jobs Aviva has already created outside the UK. Aviva expects to conclude its offshoring plans by the end of 2007 and anticipates that it will have up to 7,000 staff offshore by then, servicing its existing UK businesses.

It added that offshoring provides "flexibility and efficiency" and enables the company to maintain the quality of service.

Around 760 of the roles will be based in India and will service the life and pensions and general insurance businesses in mainly back office administration roles. The remaining 190 roles will be predominantly finance support roles based in Sri Lanka.

Aviva’s offshore operations are based in Delhi, Bangalore and Pune in India and Colombo in Sri Lanka.

(gmcg/mb)

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