Boycott Norwich Union

[GUNTER]

This firm is losing yet MORE British jobs and offers "customer service" rather than profitability as an excuse:

NORWICH UNION AXES JOBS

Hundreds more jobs will be lost at insurance company Norwich Union as a number of positions are moved to India and Sri Lanka.

Aviva, which owns Norwich Union, said that by the end of 2007 it will have offshored 7,000 jobs servicing its UK businesses.


The latest move will lead to compulsory redundancies in Britain and follows the loss of over 2,000 jobs last year.

Around 950 jobs will be created in India and Sri Lanka, leading to the loss of jobs in offices including Norwich and York.

Trade union Amicus attacked the announcement and warned it underlined the threat to the future of the UK financial services industry.

Aviva said it expected no more than 150 compulsory redundancies next year as a result of the move.

"Offshoring is a well-established strategy for Aviva which provides flexibility and efficiency and enables the company to maintain the quality of service which customers demand," the company said in a statement.

Around 760 of the new jobs will be based in India servicing the life and pensions and general insurance businesses in mainly back office administrative roles.

A further 190 finance support jobs will be created in Sri Lanka

 

[SK1NT]

i got sacked from there, for so called hitting someone i never even knew. I boycott them already, useless tossers

 

[Wilts]

I'm afraid you can't keep boycotting companies for this reason along because this is (unfortunately) the future... and you will end up having no companies left to be loyal to. As much as I agree with your sentiments Gunter!

If you want someone to blame, look no further than how ridiculously expensive this country is to live in. Prices of goods = higher wages = cheaper opportunities elsewhere. Its hardly exploitation á la the Vietnamese workhouses, this is simply good business.

Unless you get rid of "rip-off Britain", this is the way it will continue.

 

[the uninformed]

Gunter mate, if we use your logic we should boycott Ford motors for introducing the production line and putting many factory workers on the dole. We should boycott farm produce because they use tractors now which did thousands of farm workers out of a living.
This is called economic progress and will lead to cheaper financial services for you, which means you have more money to spend thus creating greater economic activity (and jobs) in other areas.
A little harsh to blame Norwich Union for the capitalist society we all live in.

 

[JJ McClure]

Probably because they only made £1.9bn profit last year. Just not enough really is it

 

[bhaexpress]

Well I worked for them recently and as they're such a bunch of miserable gits I don't feel sorry for them.

 

[GUNTER]

Companies such as Nationwide have a commitment to British jobs and it's people. I shall be using only companies who invest in the British people. It does not have to be a British company. Toyota for example export millions of cars from their Derbyshire plant each year.

 

[Easy 10]

i got sacked from there, for so called hitting someone i never even knew.

I'm intrigued.
How can you "so called hit someone" ? And what difference would it make whether you knew them ?

 

[CAFC Matt]

i got sacked from there, for so called hitting someone i never even knew. I boycott them already, useless tossers

You must have done something for them to sack you

 

[Spiros]

Companies such as Nationwide have a commitment to British jobs and it's people. I shall be using only companies who invest in the British people. It does not have to be a British company. Toyota for example export millions of cars from their Derbyshire plant each year.

Gunter - I admire the fact that you are obviously a man of principle but don't agree with your logic. Norwich Union are a british company which are using foreign staff to do some of their work because it makes better business sense for them to do so. Toyota are a Japanese company that are using foreign staff (ie british) to do some of their work because it makes better business sense for them to do so. Yet you want to boycott Norwich Union and support Toyota?

NU have exported jobs from a wealthy country with low employment and invested in a poorer country in the far east. Some call centre workers in this country have lost their jobs (but given low unemployment have a good chance of getting another) while a number of skilled people have been employed in a developing economy. This is surely a good thing? NU have done nothing illegal or immoral in my book. If they were making the Indian staff work in dangerous/sweatshop conditions I would be concerned but as far as I know (from experience with another company) this is not the case.

In this country a call centre job is seem as semi-skilled (at best) and turnover is high with poor job satisfaction. In India these jobs are highly prized and staff turnover very low with highly qualified staff doing the work.

 

[cyber seagull]

You may or may not be aware that Norwich Union give use of their facilities at Worthing free of charge to the Albion Youth coaching setup every Saturday morning.

 

[GUNTER]

I thought NU were owned by Aviva which is a french company

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

they are shite it takes months to get money out of accounts

 

[adrian29uk]

Whats wrong with everyone, Norwich Union are sacking people here becuase they want to make more money for their shareholders which I think is disgusting. The only ones winning here are the Fat Cats whilst more people in the UK will now lose there jobs. NU are a bunch of Tossers period and we should refuse to buy any more of their products until these jobs are bought back to the uk. Not only that but all these reduncies is bad for our economy dont you think?

 

[GUNTER]

Exactly. Point I was originally trying to make.

 

[Bob!]

I'm afraid you can't keep boycotting companies for this reason along because this is (unfortunately) the future... and you will end up having no companies left to be loyal to.

WRONG!!

If Norwich Union lose business from their customers because they are moving jobs out of the country they will make less money.

Then they would have to change their practices.

 

[Wilts]

Whats wrong with everyone, Norwich Union are sacking people here becuase they want to make more money for their shareholders which I think is disgusting. The only ones winning here are the Fat Cats whilst more people in the UK will now lose there jobs. NU are a bunch of Tossers period and we should refuse to buy any more of their products until these jobs are bought back to the uk. Not only that but all these reduncies is bad for our economy dont you think?

Why are shareholders all fat cats? If you hold a pension or life insurance, then Norwich Union in itself may be part of an investment trust, or when it floats on the stock market, may be a direct stock investment. And if your future partially reflects the value of Norwich Union activity in one way or another, then you wouldn't mind a choice of decision to outsource call-centre activities to the Far East, would you?

And, have you ever thought that Norwich Union in itself is a major pension fund investor? So more money to generate investment income reflects on more money for clients such as you and I.

 

[Wilts]

WRONG!!

If Norwich Union lose business from their customers because they are moving jobs out of the country they will make less money.

Then they would have to change their practices.

Why are they going to lose business? Because call centres are moving to India?!

 

[fatbadger]

So why did you go into M&S, Gunter? In recent years, the company which has always proudly declared that their clothes are made in the UK have switched clothes production to sweatshops in Asia. The result - thousands of redundacies of British workers.

 

[Bob!]

Why are they going to lose business? Because call centres are moving to India?!

If people opposed to this practice boycott them, then YES they will lose business.

BOYCOTT NORWICH UNION