Second blow for Zurich workforce

7:57am Wednesday 9th July 2008

Comments (5)   Have your say »

PLANS to close the Southampton office of insurance giant Zurich that would see around 100 jobs leave the city have been revealed in an internal memo passed to the Daily Echo.

The document details how bosses plan to transfer workers from the Grosvenor Square office to other sites in the region sometime next year.

The news follows last week's announcement from the Swiss firm that 170 workers face the axe at its Whiteley offices.

Guy Munnoch, UK General Insurance chief executive, said: "We will not be closing any offices in 2008 but Commercial Direct is proposing to transfer roles out of Southampton this year, with the remaining Southampton-based claims roles transferring out in 2009."

The company said it didn't plan to close any other sites but warned it was keeping the future of each under review.

The memo said: "No other locations are currently being considered for closure but our ongoing Target Operating Model work will continue to review all aspects of our operation, including locations, to ensure future success."

It's more to concern a UK workforce still reeling from news that a total of 870 staff are to be axed.

As well as 170 Whiteley staff, around 16 Southampton workers were among those told their jobs were at risk in last week's announcement. Now the remainder of the 104-strong office have discovered they will be relocated to either Farnborough or Whiteley.

It's not the first time the firm has quit a Hampshire city, after it shut its landmark offices in Portsmouth and transferred its 600 staff to Whiteley last year.

Tough market conditions were blamed for the losses, which came just weeks after the company dismissed rumours it planned to axe hundreds of staff as "completely speculative and alarmist".

Communications boss Wendy May said: "We have got other locations on the south coast and if we are being as cost effective as we can be we have to look at our premises "With regards to Southampton we have taken the decision that sometime in 20009 we will finish our lease and we will relocate the people there to our offices in Farnborough and Whiteley. The plans haven't yet been decided. It's a long way off but we've given a heads-up that that is our intention."

She said the company was trying to be open about its plans but could not rule out future changes.

"Any business that says we will never change is foolhardy," she said. "The fact is that we have looked forward and we believe the work done here means our future is secure. You have to be ready to change at any time but there are absolutely no proposals on the table."

Alan Wood, general secretary of the Union of Finance Staff, said: "We're going to press the employer to avoid making people redundant who don't want to be."