Norwich Union axes 321 call centre jobs

Norwich Union is to axe 321 jobs as it closes its customer services centre in Liverpool.

The centre, which handles calls for Norwich Union Direct, is set to close by November this year because of "continuing growth in online insurance sales" and "increased efficiency", the company said.

Simon Machell, CEO of Norwich Union Insurance, said it was a difficult decision but one the company had to make to be able to compete. He also said Norwich will do what it can to redeploy affected employees and keep redundancies to a minimum.

The company has also announced 17 compulsory redundancies in its technical support team in Sheffield.

Work from the Liverpool call centre is to be offshored to India and existing centres in the UK.

The company has another operation in Liverpool and a customer centre in Sheffield where possible vacancies will be identified, it said.

Of the 321 staff, 180 work in motor insurance, with a further 40 in home insurance customer service, and the rest in a range of support and administrative roles.

In September 2004 Norwich Union announced it would create 7,000 jobs offshore by the end of 2007. This was increased to 7,800 following the acquisition of RAC in March 2005 by Aviva, Norwich Union's parent company.