Zurich out of England, into India

All over industry and British media yesterday was a bit of sad news coming out of England. Zurich insurance firm has announced that 730 jobs will be eliminated at three British call centers, with the Newcastle call center taking a deadly 505-job hit. The Newcastle operation has been given a maximum of seven months to live and will be closed by the end of March.

All 505 jobs in Newcastle will be lost, together with 139 jobs in Portsmouth and 86 jobs in Cardiff. All 730 of the affected staff have been placed at risk of redundancy and Zurich has now begun a 90 day consultation period with the trade union. Though not explicitly stated as such, the benefactors of new jobs are thought to be in India. Zurich’s first Indian call center opened in 2002.

Today, Zurich’s Indian employee roll call is ten times longer. “We will look to transfer work to other offices,” stated an unnamed spokesman in an InsightExec.com story. “Should our proposals go ahead, it could involve the creation of roles in India as well.”