Partner Article

Jobs could be axed at insurance call centre

Jobs could be axed at the Sunderland call centre of insurer Royal Sun Alliance, despite reporting an increase in annual profits.

The company’s More Than business employs 640 people at Doxford InternationalBusiness Park, Sunderland. They are part of an 8,800-strong UK workforce, with the main offices in Liverpool, London and Horsham, Sussex.

Job losses are expected to be spread across the company at all levels and will take effect over 15 months.

The planned cuts were announced despite RSA posting pre-tax profits of £759m, up 13% in the 2008 calendar year. A spokesman said about 260 posts had already gone and another 300 were expected to be lost through natural wastage.

Royal Sun Alliance said it had given a commitment to the Unite union that it would try to minimise any redundancies.

Chief executive Andy Haste said: “In a year of challenging trading conditions and volatile investment markets, we have again delivered strong results. We expect to face challenging conditions but are confident of delivering sustainable profits.”

Unite said it would oppose any compulsory redundancies and was talking to RSA about easing the impact of the company’s proposed cuts on staff.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .