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Updated 2.20pm
MORALE IS ‘ON the floor’ among Aviva staff amid speculation up to 500 jobs could be cut as part of a restructuring operation, union representatives have said.
Officials of the Unite union, which represents 1,300 of Aviva’s 2,100 employees in Ireland, met with management this morning after the possible job losses were reported last night.
They said Aviva representatives refused to deny rumours that hundreds of staff could be made redundant, while employees at the insurance giant are angry at the story having emerged in the media before they received any communication from management. Unite regional officer Brian Gallagher said:
Morale is on the floor. Our members are trying their best to lift the business in difficult circumstances It is unfair to expect staff to operate in a vacuum when they do not know if they will have a job in a few months’ time.
Earlier, the multinational firm has said it is considering “various options” to maintain its Irish business, and that its review is “still under way”. In a statement released this morning, the company stressed that it is “committed to Ireland”. It said:
Given the difficult economic environment in which we are all operating in Ireland, we are considering various options to ensure we have a sustainable and competitive business.
Colm Quinlan, an official at Unite, confirmed this morning that the union had been told earlier this year that Aviva was considering moving its European headquarters to the UK from Dublin, where it relocated in 2009. However, he said they had not been given any details on the potential impact on jobs.
Mr Quinlan said that job losses on the scale reported would “devastate” Aviva in Ireland, adding that the union would be “extremely concerned” if information had been leaked to the media before employees were told. Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, he promised a “robust response” to any planned downsizing.
The union said it had only learned of events through the media when Aviva moved jobs from Ireland to India in 2008. Officials are meeting with Aviva management this morning and a statement is expected after the talks have concluded.
RTÉ’s Prime Time last night reported that 300 to 500 jobs could be lost as part of a planned “major restructuring” of the firm’s Irish operations. The numbers were given in internal correspondence apparently seen by a Prime Time reporter.
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Does this mean we can change the name of the Aviva Stadium back too Lansdowne Road !!..
allways was landsdown rd.
Maybe if they didn’t blow 10 million euro renaming a stadium, they wouldn’t have to let people go!
These companies moved here primarily for the low tax base. They’re subsequently the exact companies that will up sticks and leave when the going gets tough – all to suit shareholders. The low tax rate in Ireland is folly and this is the outcome. Same can be said about Talk Talk.
Damn multinationals! The sooner we chase them out of Ireland the sooner we’ll all have high paying jobs for life.
Aviva in fact took over Hibernian Insurance a few years ago, Hibernian being an Irish company at the time.
We don’t need to chase multinationals out of this country, we should be stopping their quest for global domination in the first place and not allow them to come buy out indigenous companies, if it was still hibernian and an irish company, this may not have happened.
Joe O Higgins solution is that we should nationalise Aviva. But that’s his solution to everything of course.
In fairness now, this has been known by Aviva workers for a long long time, first I heard of it was off a chap that works there about 4 years ago. Many have been offered to go to India with Irish level of pay. I’d take it, you’d live like a feckin king on that money over in India. Plus better weather and food.
I highly doubt that has happened. Here move to India you can keep your x5 times the indian wages….. (rolls eyes)
Jobs come and jobs go, that is life. If people aren’t willing to get off their butts and start again then where are we going as a country. Bit of start up and go people!
Ah the empathic thoughts of a true Christian.
€44 million over ten years on Landsdowne Road well spent then
http://www.irishtimes.com/sports/rugby/2009/0212/1224241050544.html
If Aviva move 500 jobs overseas, then if you have a policy with Aviva immediately change provider, As far as I remenber it was this implicit threat via the media last time that changed their mind. They have the arrogance to make 500 people unemployed but continue to make vast profits from the Irish insurance market… well f..k them
@ Damien, there is a lot more than 500 working there and while I understand you sentiment all that will do is result in more job losses.
The real worry is that we (Ireland) have now lost jobs in 2 major companies to the UK. That shows how much further we have to go to be competitive, not with India or eastern Europe but right at our own back door
Good point Mark but if no action is taken over this Possibility then will Aviva and others just move all positions overseas and think ahh sure that was painless and look at the higher margins.
If an Irish company like Kerry group or FBD moved a couple of thousand jobs overseas to save (relatively) pocket change, would the nation accept it?
I do think other overheads like energy, rates and comms are not competitive and desperately need to opened up to real competition in order to reduce costs.
Competitive is not in our vocabulary.
Last october in the us the chrysler motor co hired 1000 new employees at $10 per hour while the existing staff were paid in excess of $20 per hour. Their unions agreed to this. 50% less – that was last year and we are still not even close to looking at the Croke park agreement or cutting our wages to become competitive.
1 year from now I expect double the amount of people on the dole – wake up.
More bad news. I’m very sorry to hear this and my sympathy and best wishes for the future are with the employees that are to be affected.
have your say