More insurance jobs go to India

Insurance giant Norwich Union has announced plans to move 950 jobs to India.

15:26 22 September 2004

Norwich Union has announced the outsourcing of 950 jobs to India and Sri Lanka, in a move that will see somewhere in the region of 150 compulsory redundancies in the UK.

According to parent company Aviva, 760 jobs will be created at its Indian operations in Delhi, Bangalore and Pune, and a further 190 in Sri Lanka. Bosses at Aviva aim to have some 7,000 jobs based overseas by 2001.

The insurance giant already employs 3,700 staff in India.

Chief executive Gary Withers claimed that the move was essential to deliver value for money.

"We operate in very competitive markets where customers continually seek better value for money and quality of service," he said. "Expanding our offshore operations will give us the increased capacity we need."

Norwich Union maintains that it will make all efforts to minimise job losses by redeploying staff to alternative positions wherever possible.

Outsourcing has become increasingly popular among businesses in a variety of industries looking to cut employment costs. Overseas workers tend to demand significantly less pay than their UK counterparts, offering wage savings of as much as 40 per cent.

The move has been slammed by the trade union, Amicus, which claimed that more redundancies were likely to follow.

"The financial services employees across the UK will be bracing themselves," commented David Fleming, Amicus national officer. "Amicus expects thousands more redundancies as companies are forced to show their offshoring hand."