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.

The white-collar union Amicus said that staff at York were among those being told of job cuts under plans to "export" work to India. Aviva, which trades as Norwich Union, was said to have stunned workers by announcing that it will outsource work to Delhi and Bangalore next year. The company was unavailable for comment.

Updated: 10:45 Tuesday, December 02, 2003