Insurance giants Commercial Union (CU) and General Accident (GA) have announced a £15bn merger leading to 5,000 job cuts worldwide.

About 3,000 of those job losses will be in Britain. The deal will create the world's biggest general insurer.

The merged insurance group is to be called CGU, and will have its headquarters in London, where Commercial Union is based.

The Manufacturing, Science and Finance (MSF) union, which represents all staff at GA and some of the staff at CU, vowed to protect the workers.

National Secretary Bill Walsh said he was "very cross about the speculation" on staff cuts.

He said that his union had been told in confidence of the merger prior to the announcement.

The union had asked if the companies planned to mention job losses and had been assured that they did not.

"Creating fear and anxiety among workers is not good business," Mr Walsh said.

He said past mergers had frightened away workers with talk of mass lay-offs, only to have to recruit them back later.

The speculation about staff shedding came from executives eager to boost their companies share price in the short term, he added.

Mr Walsh said he accepted that some jobs would go, but they should be found through early retirement and voluntary redundancy packages.

Mr Walsh said: "It's inevitable when two businesses get together that there is overlap.

"But we do insist the objective is dealt with in a way that doesn't throw people on to the dole."

"We're not prepared to countenance compulsory redundancies."

Bob Scott, the GA Chief Executive, refused to rule out compulsory job cuts in an interview with BBC radio.

After trimming its combined workforce, expected by observers to hit the London general insurance operations hardest, the combined group will employ 48,000 people worldwide.

It will have an annual premium income of £15.1bn.
 

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