THREE former senior managers of the Norwich Union life insurance group have taken a case to the Employment Appeals Tribunal claiming they were unfairly selected for a redundancy package.

Former regional managers, Mr Paul Short, Mr Gerard Loomes and Mr James Wiseman, together accepted redundancy payments totalling more than £300 000 from Norwich Union in 1993 following a rationalisation of its life and pensions business.

The case began yesterday despite arguments by Norwich Union that the redundancy payments should be repaid before any action could proceed.

The men were three of eight regional managers affected by a rationalisation plan implemented by the company in 1992 in response to a slump in Norwich Union's life insurance business.

At that time the company decided to revamp its regional structure, merging its eight regional areas into four larger entities, with the loss of four regional manager jobs.

Giving evidence at the tribunal yesterday, the Norwich Union chief executive, Mr Vincent Sheridan, said that while the decision (came as a "shock" to the regional managers it was necessary for the group to reduce its operations in this way to remain viable.

To achieve the new structure Mr Sheridan said, rather than "de-selecting" employees at that stage, the company worked towards "selecting" new candidates for the four new regional manager positions. This process, he added, was "very difficult".

We wanted to keep some people on the team who were hugely important to the organisation. And we also wanted to see if some would accept voluntary redundancy.

Stressing that the fate of individual regional managers had been predetermined before were informed of the restructuring, Mr Sheridan said that it had eight "strong candidates" to consider, there were only four jobs.

Mr Sheridan, together with two other senior executives, subsequently selected four regional managers based on a judgments as to who were the best people for the job", he told the tribunal.

Mr Short, Mr Loomes and Mr Wiseman were three of the four regional managers who were to lose their jobs. The tribunal was told that a fourth was still working at Norwich Union after moving to a lower grade assistant manager position.

Mr Short and Mr Loomes were regional managers in the Dublin area while Mr Wiseman had been based in the Galway region.

Following discussions with Norwich Union's life and pensions manager, Mr Charles Heneghan, Mr Sheridan said the three men had accepted a "substantial" redundancy package.

Mr Short, the tribunal was told received a gross payment of £93,000 in addition to deferred rights. Mr Short also was allowed to purchase his company car at a preferential rate.

Mr Loomes was paid a gross sum of £121,712, which included a cash injection of £21,000 into his pension fund. He also was allowed to buy his car at a favourable rate. The company also paid accountancy fees incurred by Mr Loomes during the negotiation of his package. Mr Wiseman received £103,000 and was also allowed to buy his car at a preferential rate from the company.

Each individual's redundancy package was roughly equivalent to two years salary. The case was adjourned until September 18th.