LONDON (AFP) - British insurance giant Aviva announced plans to export 950 more jobs to India and Sri Lanka next year, with a total of 7,000 staff expected to be offshored by the end of 2007.
The workers will service the group's Norwich Union arm. Aviva said it expected no more than 150 compulsory redundancies as a result, with job reductions to be achieved in part through normal staff turnover.
Aviva has already created 3,700 jobs in India, joining a rush by British firms to take advantage of the country's low-paid but well-educated and English-speaking workforce.
"We operate in very competitive markets where customers continually seek better value for money and quality of service," said Norwich Union Lifes chief executive, Gary Withers.
"The experience of our existing offshore operations shows that the service levels in India continue to match those that we achieve in our UK operations."
About 760 of the roles will be based in India and will service the life and pensions and general insurance businesses in mainly back office administration roles. The remaining 190 roles will be mostly finance support roles based in Sri Lanka.