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Monday, 6 September 2004, 06:25 GMT 07:25 UK

Staff fear over 'offshore' moves

Norwich Union office Norwich Union has moved to reassure Scottish staff that their jobs are safe after employees said they feared being replaced by cheaper workers overseas.

Trade union Amicus, which represents a third of its staff, said they were worried about so-called offshoring.

The insurance firm, which employs 1,300 people in Perth, has already moved some of its UK operations to India.

But a company spokeswoman said Scotland had not been affected by offshoring and was unlikely to be so in the future.

She said the number of staff in Perth had actually increased by 400 over the past few years.

Job fears

Amicus claims in its new offshoring survey that the vast majority of Norwich Union staff are worried for their futures and fear further job cuts.

The results of its research show 78% or workers have job security worries related to the practice of moving work abroad while 70% thought decisions to offshore work were not justified.

A further 93% believed the decisions to move work abroad were taken purely for short-term gains, while just 3% thought such decisions were based on clear business arguments.

"We have been telling the company for some time that their staff are opposed to offshoring but the company have chosen to ignore our advice"
Dave Fleming
Amicus


Some 94% were concerned about the quality of service provided by their foreign colleagues and the same figure felt offshoring had damaged the company's brand and revenues.

The union carried out the research in response to several announcements over the last year where Norwich Union has cut UK jobs and moved them abroad.

Amicus national officer Dave Fleming said: "The results of our survey are no surprise to the union, with 99.9% of staff replying saying they fear further job cuts.

"We have been telling the company for some time that their staff are opposed to offshoring but the company have chosen to ignore our advice."



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Related to this story:
Norwich Union to cut 700 UK jobs (09 Jun 04 |  Business )
Norwich Union cuts savers returns (29 Apr 04 |  Business )
York firm switches jobs to India (09 Apr 04 |  North Yorkshire )
Insurer 'maps' UK in flood fight (03 Mar 04 |  Business )

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