Prudential’s employees in Reading are being balloted for strike action over a plan to outsource 75 annuities jobs to India.
The Unite union has announced its strong opposition to the outsourcing plan, which would see a significant number of full-time staff let go. The company plans to retain 12 annuity jobs in Reading, with the remainder going to Mumbai. Prudential estimates the cuts would save approximately £2m.
Voting on the industrial action opens on 1 August and closes on 15 August.
“We dispute the alleged savings and the assumptions that are behind them,” said Unite regional officer Ian Methven. “We note, with a degree of cynicism, the salaries recently splashed out on four senior executives appointed by Prudential boss John Foley.”
“We don’t accept that you can only improve efficiencies by moving work to Mumbai and it is impossible to see how losing over 500 years of collective knowledge and experience in Reading won’t have an adverse impact on customer/client relations.”
Prudential employs approximately 800 people in the Berkshire town.
“Unite submitted a counter proposal asking the company to stop the outsourcing and to engage constructively with Unite and our members on how the Reading employees can deliver efficiencies, while retaining the knowledge and experience - but this was rejected,” said Methven. “These proposals make no business sense at all. The cost savings are questionable and the risk to customer relations is great.”
Unite urged Prudential to withdraw its proposal and develop a new solution.
As reported by Insurance Business UK, Prudential announced it would no longer offer annuities on the open market and will only offer its products to existing customers.
