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Aviva , Britain’s second-biggest insurer, is to axe 384 jobs in Bristol from next year following the expiry of a life and savings joint venture with Royal Bank of Scotland.
The job cuts, to be phased in over a year starting in the second half of 2012, reflect the closure of the joint venture’s dedicated administration centre at Bristol.
The move comes less than a month after Aviva almost halved its Irish workforce with 950 job losses, the biggest round of redundancies by a single company in Ireland in two years.
“This announcement takes the total number of jobs cut by Aviva in the UK and Ireland in the last month to 1,500, and is unacceptable,” the Unite trade union said in a statement.
The bulk of its Bristol operation is to be moved to Sheffield, Norwich and York and the company has promised to do everything in its power to help staff, Aviva spokesman Steve Colton said.
The company added that around 60 specialist underwriters and claims assessors based in Bristol will keep their jobs. A further 80 staff who work for other parts of Aviva in Bristol will also not be affected.
“Our priority is to give employees as much support as possible throughout this difficult period, engaging with them as early and openly as possible and we will, of course, do everything we can to redeploy those people impacted by these changes." said Mr Cotton.
