The UK’s largest trade union has warned Aviva against job cuts as a result of its deal to takeover Friends Life, which was confirmed yesterday (26 March), as Aviva announces a shake-up of its senior management team.
Unite represents around 4,000 members across both companies and has demanded an “urgent” meeting with Aviva to reassure all staff that the pursuit of cutting costs will not be the outcome of the acquisition.
In December, Aviva bosses said there would be some job cuts in areas where the insurers overlap but claimed they wished to keep redundancies to a minimum.
Dominic Hook, a national officer at Unite, said it will be seeking assurances that the takeover will not be used as an excuse to slash jobs and erode the terms and conditions of staff in the pursuit of short term savings for shareholders keen to get a quick return.
“The skills and experience of the long serving staff across Friends Life and Aviva will form the basis of the future success of the new company.
“At this stage it is vital that Aviva give employees clarity and assurances about the future of the combined workforce in the new company.”
The £5.6bn deal was first mooted in December, but has taken until this week to be hammered out, with Aviva shareholders finally approving the transaction with a resounding 99.79 per cent of votes cast in favour of the ordinary share capital of Friends Life Group being approved and the directors being authorised to implement the acquisition.
Once the Guernsey Court sanctions the scheme on 10 April, the transaction is expected to complete three days later.
Aviva previously announced that Andy Briggs, current Friends Life chief executive, will become chief executive of the enlarged Aviva UK and Ireland Life business, but today (27 March) the group stated that the current chief executive David Barral will be leaving at the end of May.
John Lister, group chief risk officer, will also be moving to become UK and Ireland Life chief financial officer.
He will retain a group remit in business development, supporting group chief financial officer Tom Stoddard. This appointment will be effective from 1 July to ensure a smooth transition of responsibilities.
Other senior appointments include Clive Bolton as retirement managing director, Andy Curran as corporate and business solutions managing director, Rob Barker as strategic partners and protection managing director, Stephen Shone as Aviva Plus managing director, Rosie Harris as chief risk and compliance officer, Kevin Moss as chief operating officer, James Ward as strategy director and Rob Houghton as UK chief investment officer.
peter.walker@ft.com
