British insurance major to outsource jobs to India

Hundreds of Liverpool-based jobs in insurance major Norwich Union are to be moved to India, said the company.

Norwich Union, one of Liverpool's biggest employers, has announced that it is closing its Water Street base, with the loss of 321 jobs.

The insurance giant admitted some of the work would be transferred to existing call centres in India.

The company, owned by insurance giant Aviva, cited the growth of online sales as a reason for the decision to move jobs to India. Its city centre office would shut by the end of October.

A company statement said Norwich Union would try to find alternative jobs at the Moorfields office or Sheffield. Of the 321 redundancies, 180 work in motor insurance customer services, 40 in home insurance and the rest in a range of support and office roles.

The company said 45 Norwich Union Life staff, and a small number of IT and HR staff in the Water Street base were not included in the job losses.

In 2004, the company announced plans to create 7,000 jobs overseas by the end of 2007.

Andy Case, national secretary for finance union Amicus, said, "We are shocked by this announcement which will be a massive blow to our members and to the local community.

"Norwich Union Direct is a successful operation and we are deeply unhappy that the hard work of staff is being repaid in this way.

"Some of this work is being off-shored and we do not believe that a business case can be made for this."

Simon Machell, chief executive of Norwich Union Insurance, said, "It is always a difficult decision to close any part of our operation with the resulting impact on people and jobs, but we have to remain competitive in a constantly changing market.

"We will do everything we can to provide support and possible redeployment for the people affected, and to keep the number of compulsory redundancies as small as possible."