THOUSANDS of York workers were said to be braced for job cuts today as Aviva, the country's biggest insurance firm, announced it is to shed 2,350 posts in the UK.

The white-collar union Amicus said that Norwich Union staff in York, where 3,000 are employed on the life insurance side of the Aviva group, were among those being told of job cuts under plans to "export" work to India.

Aviva was said to have stunned workers by announcing that it will move some of its work to Delhi and Bangalore next year.

Workers were being given the news at briefings today, and union leaders said they feared cuts in Norwich, York and Perth.

Gary Withers, chief executive of Norwich Union Life in York, said that figures for jobs affected in the city could not be given because this was not yet known.

"There is no reason for people in York to be over-worried about redundancies, although there is no guarantee," he said.

Aviva claims that about 80 per cent of the jobs created in India will be accommodated in the UK by "a combination of expansion, current vacancies, staff turnover and voluntary measures."

In York, jobs affected would be largely administrative, and while the city accounted for 3,000 of the 33,000 Aviva jobs in the UK, there was greater opportunity to swap roles or retrain. "It will require people to be flexible," said Mr Withers.

He said: "We could have delayed the announcement until all the contracts were signed and sealed, but this is about being open and honest. It is perfectly legitimate that staff will have some questions, but we want to reassure people that the vast majority will be absorbed into our natural turnover."

York MP Hugh Bayley said he had been assured that the decision would "have little impact on the number of people they employ in our city."

Mr Bayley said: "They told me today that they remain 100 per cent committed to keeping the HQ of their life business in York."

But Karen Reay, the Amicus lead officer for Aviva Life, accused the group of "downplaying the situation".

"The fact is that 2,350 jobs will be exported to India and there is no guarantee that 80 per cent of those jobs will be absorbed," she said.

"It could amount to 500 compulsory redundancies in the UK. Jobs which were once available won't be there.

"It's easy to say 'we are going to have a reorganisation - don't worry', but this is hugely stressful for the workers and their families."

Dave Fleming, national officer of Amicus, said: "This deplorable announcement by Aviva is based purely on greed.

"Aviva have given these 2,350 employees a wonderful Christmas present of an uncertain future."

Updated: 14:13 Tuesday, December 02, 2003