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Hundreds of jobs at risk after RAC deal
Norwich Union to cut staff after buying motoring firm Paul Whitehouse THE future of 470 Sheffield jobs has been left in doubt by the takeover of the RAC announced by insurance company Aviva.
Aviva aims to save money by axing 1,700 jobs in the UK, both by cutting out duplicated head office roles in areas including human resources and by "offshoring" some jobs to overseas countries.
Aviva owns Norwich Union, which employs 2,100 people in Sheffield, and last night it would confirm only that jobs could be at risk from any of its UK sites.
However, it is understood that in the Yorkshire region, 470 of the Sheffield jobs are potentially at risk from the proposed shake-up.
The company's annual staff turnover is in excess of 1,700 nationally and they have pledged to try to minimise the impact of the losses through natural wastage.
Norwich Union has a call centre off Ecclesall Road and more premises in the former Royal Infirmary building, Infirmary Road, Upperthorpe.
The announcement could mean more bad news for Norwich Union staff in Sheffield.
Around a year ago 170 jobs were lost in the city as the business was re-organised.
A spokeswoman said: "There will be about 1,700 job losses across the UK but we don't have any detail yet about where they will go from. The deal is in the very early stages.
"Nine hundred will be from support functions, like human resources, IT and finance, and some jobs will be off-shored.
"We would not be off-shoring any customer-facing jobs, people who work in call centres.
"Sheffield could be affected, as any of the locations could be.
"We don't know where they will go from. We will also be creating jobs across the UK, but don't yet know where," she said.
Aviva is the fifth-biggest insurance group in the world and accounts for 14 per cent of the UK's domestic insurance business.
The RAC began as the Royal Automobile Club, a private members club, and was bought out by car hire firm Lex in 1999 for 437m.
It is now reported to be worth around 1bn as a buyout target. The AA was sold less than a year ago for 1.75bn.
Although it is best known for its roadside recovery service, the RAC is also an insurer, providing policies for 275,000 householders and car owners.
Aviva's plan is to increase the number of additional products sold to existing RAC members, from the current rate of 13 per cent to more than 50 per cent.
That would include financial products such as car loans, as well as persuading more of its own car insurance customers to buy roadside assistance cover.
Norwich Union launched its own roadside rescue service two years ago and has since attracted around 275,000 customers.
Hilary Cook of Barclays Stockbrokers said the deal offered Aviva a strong brand and low-risk diversification. She said: "The AA is already very successful with car insurance and maybe Aviva think they can do the same with the RAC."
Andy Case, regional officer for trade union Amicus said: "Staff will understandably be very worried by this announcement and we are becoming increasingly concerned that staff have to learn of their fate from the radio at breakfast.
"Amicus is working to ensure that there will be no compulsory redundancies and we expect to be fully consulted over the coming months."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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