UNION chiefs said a ballot for industrial action had not been ruled out as Norwich Union workers were still grappling with news of the 450 job cuts in York.

Amicus leaders have rounded on the company following yesterday's announcement, but said they would be guided by what members wanted - just as one furious worker contacted The Press to voice demands for strike action.

"I think it's disgusting - the outsourcing of work to third parties," the worker said, asking to remain anonymous.

"It will lead to a poor service and more job losses. The reaction is absolute disgust and fury amongst union members. I want a ballot for strike action, and many others do as well."

Andrew Case, national secretary for Amicus, admitted: "We certainly wouldn't rule it a ballot for industrial action out.

"I need to meet with our representatives who work for Norwich Union and get a feeling for their views and the views of our members. What we do will ultimately be guided by what they say."

He criticised the manner in which news of the job losses had been leaked to the media before staff were informed yesterday.

"Clearly that's not good for morale as everyone must be thinking it is them.

"The reality is most companies in the financial sector would have given a reasonable amount of notice and had discussions with us first.

"There are lots of insurance companies in this country - most don't seem to see the need to slash 4,000 jobs.

"They adjust their recruitment figures to take account of the change in circumstances. Unfortunately, Norwich Union seem to have taken a very short term view."

Mr Case also argued against off-shoring jobs - part of the finance company's controversial plan.

"We don't see the business case. Norwich Union has joined this band wagon quite late and seem to be blindly following it through when a number of companies are actually starting to bring jobs back to the UK."

But Norwich Union spokeswoman Louise Soulsby, was confident staff would understand the reasons for the job cuts.

She said: "We are talking to staff to explain the changes and why they are necessary to ensure Norwich Union continues to be successful. We believe staff will understand. We are providing support and we will do everything we can to reduce compulsory redundancies including considering voluntary redundancies where appropriate."

She said the consultation process would be thorough and "as speedy as possible" to reduce the uncertainty. She also insisted Norwich Union was not taking a short-term view as it had announced off-shoring plans a number of years ago. She said: "The resource costs are around 30 to 40 per cent of the costs in the UK although that's not the only consideration. Off-shoring delivers the quality, flexibility and huge benefits of working in a different time zone."


Staff lose jobs after training up Indians

NORWICH Union has been sending staff abroad to train how to do their jobs - only to face redundancy themselves when they return home.

One man, who asked not to be named, said he had been working in India for three years knowing that his own job would be lost.

"It is disgusting," he said. "I did it because there was a lot of money involved going over there, but I knew there would be no job left for me at the end of it.

"What the company didn't tell me is that so many hundred jobs would be going in York. I thought it would just be me and a small number of others."

The trainers have been living and working alongside the Indian workers, passing on their skills to build up a fully-functioning call centre.

The source said: "I was sent to India to train people to answer telephones, do telephone sales and deal with people who have been in accidents.

"I trained them to speak English and how to communicate well over the telephone.

"They are employing hundreds of people over there - which is just cheap labour - and the operation there is getting bigger all the time.

"It absolutely stinks that workers in York are losing their jobs while the company pays people poor wages to do the same job abroad."

He added: "We've known about the job losses for a while, but we didn't know the amount of figures involved - the announcement was only made yesterday.

"They've waited until everything was sorted in India before announcing the job cuts here.

"If you ring the helpline now it goes straight through to India and it is not uncommon to find people complaining and asking to speak to someone who is English - even though the workers there are trying their best to speak English."

A spokeswoman for Norwich Union said it had been "open and transparent" about it plans to move jobs overseas.

She said: "We made an announcement about three years ago that we would be transferring about 7,800 jobs in total and that is what is happening.

"These jobs are not just going from York, but from other places. We have been completely open and transparent about it."

Three years ago The Press reported that Aviva, which trades as Norwich Union, "stunned workers" by announcing it would outsource work to Delhi and Bangalore.

Norwich Union bosses said at the time it was "unlikely" that staff in York would see their jobs exported, but said they "could give no guarantees."