Personal Injury Solicitors and Insurance Company Cuts Down

Personal injury solicitors and insurance giant Norwich Union is shedding more than 350 jobs in the city as part of a massive overhaul of its business. The company is cutting 359 positions at its Pynes Hill office - leaving just 54 posts. The shock move also involves closing the building and relocating the remaining staff to smaller premises by the end of 2010. Staff were told the devastating news at a meeting yesterday along with thousands of their counterparts around the country.

Employees told the Echo yesterday they were "gutted" by the news - but they said they had been ordered by management not to talk to the Press. A member of staff who has worked for Norwich Union for two years, said that all employees were gathered together by senior management and told of the decision.

"Everyone is absolutely gutted," said another employee who asked not to be named. There was no indication this was going to happen. Everyone stood there with their mouths open, not believing what they had been told. The management said there was no easy way to tell us, but we weren't going to be one of the seven offices saved, even though we are the best performing unit in the UK. It feels like we are not being valued."

He said a lot of the work would be moved to India, where labour costs were lower, but he claimed customer services would suffer. "There's a huge language barrier," he said. "I think if you polled most Norwich Union customers, they would be disgruntled about the prospect of more work moving to foreign offices. This office deals with personal injury claims, so we have to be able to liaise with solicitors, read medical reports, collate information, and understand the rules and regulations of the British system. I don't think that level of service will continue."

Norwich Union's owner, Aviva, is making up to 1,800 people redundant nationwide over the next two years as part of a company transformation. A leading Devon business figure has warned the job losses could be the first of many as financial services organisations respond to the deepening  economic downturn. There have been widespread predictions that 50,000 jobs could go in the City of London. A spokeswoman for Norwich Union said: "Exeter is affected significantly by yesterday's announcement.

"At the moment we have 413 people there and of them, 359 work in the operations function. These roles are being withdrawn from Exeter. As a result, we will be closing the office by the end of 2010 and finding a smaller one for the people remaining.

"The jobs will go gradually over the next two years and we will do everything we possibly can to minimise the impact in terms of redundancy. We will try to redeploy. There will be a high percentage of natural wastage and us not filling vacancies. We will be working with local business groups to see what we can do about redeployment."

Tim Jones, chairman of the Devon and Cornwall Business Council, said: "This is a complete bolt out of the blue. It's very unusual not to have had an early warning. I think the last big job losses in Exeter were about 10 years ago when the army payroll office shut. Exeter's economy is normally robust enough to absorb job losses but because of the credit crunch, this could be the first sign of more significant job losses. This could be a worrying trend. It may be the first sign of Exeter battening down the hatches - there may be more of this to come."