Call Center In India - Call Center Industry in India
Tuesday, December 02, 2003
Aviva to move 2,350 UK jobs to India
LONDON: Britain's biggest insurer, Aviva Plc, has revealed it would move about 2,350 UK jobs to India, the latest move by the UK's financial services industry to export jobs to low-cost countries.
Aviva said it would shift about 350 UK call-center jobs and 2,000 in processing, administration and information technology. It added it would consider hiring more people next year in India, where outsourcing has become an engine of export growth.
Aviva, rival insurer Prudential Plc and major UK banks such as Lloyds TSB Group Plc are hiring in India where they can recruit highly educated workers at a fraction of the cost at home. Britain's biggest bank, HSBC Holdings Plc, said that in October it would move 4,000 UK jobs to low-cost countries.
"We are operating in an increasingly competitive environment," Aviva Chief Executive Richard Harvey said in the statement. "Staff will have the best possible opportunity to find other roles within our group."
Aviva informed at least 80 percent of the UK job cuts would be made without compulsory redundancies, though it did not rule them out. It is setting aside 1.5 million pounds ($2.6 million) to give career advice and retraining to staff affected.
Aviva plans to hire a total of about 2,500 workers in India next year, bringing the number of staff there to 3,700, the company said. Aviva employs 59,000 people, including about 33,000 in Britain.
