SCORES of Hampshire workers at international insurance giant Zurich Financial Services face a bleak midwinter after the firm revealed plans to axe 130 staff.

Zurich, which posted profits of more than £1.13 billion last year, plans to cull 130 call centre workers from its Whiteley office.

The 130 staff, from a total of 1,112 in Fareham and 2,000 in Hamp-shire, were told they were "at risk" of losing their jobs although they will not discover finally until early next year.

Most of the 130 are thought likely to be chopped because Zurich plans to establish a single claims centre at its existing Portsmouth offices. Just 15 new posts will be created by the move.

A spokesman said: "Our UK Personal Lines business has been looking at the way our claims and service teams are organised, with the aim of understanding whether improvements could be made to enhance customer satisfaction, process efficiency and, where possible, reduce costs.

"As a result we have announced today that 130 people working in the claims team of our UK personal lines business have been put 'at risk' of redundancy.

"We will be providing every support to people in seeking redeployment opportunities within the organisation, although it is impossible to say exactly how many there will be for the people affected by today's announcements."

Managers are among those facing the axe.

"Some of those put at risk are at different levels so that would include some of the more senior staff as well," said the spokesman.

Zurich, a Swiss company named after the city where it has its headquarters, admitted the timing was unfortunate.

The spokesman added: "The timing of such announcements is never going to be right, however considerable time has gone into this project and we would not be making these proposals if we did not believe that they were right for our business."

The company pledged that staff would be offered support and help to find new work as well as redundancy terms better than the statutory minimum of one week's pay for each year of service.

l Are you one of the 130 getting the axe? Contact the Southern Daily Echo business desk in confidence on 023 8042 4499.