Galway based staff of insurance firm Aviva have backed plans to ballot for industrial action on foot of the decision of management to let go almost 1,000 personnel over the next two years.
At a meeting tonight the Galway employees supported moves by their colleagues in Dublin to hold the ballot, which could commence as early as Tuesday. Aviva staff in Cork are to meet tomorrow to discuss the redundancy announcement .
The trade union Unite said the mood of staff at the company was one of “anger and defiance” following the announcement of the job losses. Unite regional officer Brian Gallagher said that Aviva remained an immensely profitable company.
The company said yesterday the job losses result from moves to combine its Irish and UK divisions and to restructure its European regional operations.
The company has also warned that up to 300 additional posts could be outsourced. However, it said any jobs that were outsourced would remain in Ireland.
Aviva also said it was investigating the feasibility of establishing “additional centres of excellence in Ireland to serve customers in the UK as the business grows”. It said this could potentially mitigate the job cuts by approximately 200.
Other than the proposed job losses in its Aviva Europe facility in Dublin, the company has given no details of which of its Irish operations – life insurance, general insurance or health insurance – will be affected by the cuts.