Hundreds of staff at one of Perth’s largest employers are facing an anxious wait over the future of their jobs.
Insurance giant Aviva announced that up to 800 jobs will be lost nationwide as part of a major restructuring.
Although a decision has yet to be made on where the cuts will take place, it is feared that as many as 60 jobs at the Pitheavlis call centre could be at risk should Perth take a proportional hit of the redundancies.
The possible blow comes just two months after local politicians welcomed comments from Aviva’s head of general insurance business saying the firm could soon be employing twice as many staff in the Fair City as it did during its time as a base for General Accident.
There was even hope that further jobs could be coming to Perth with senior management saying there was scope for expansion.
Pete Wishart MP said: “Aviva is an extremely important Perthshire employer and it is, of course, worrying particularly for the staff themselves whenever there is talk of restructuring or reductions in staff numbers.
“There has been a lot of talk about the scale of the business in Perth growing even further and I very much hope that this will not turn out to have been a promise of ‘jam tomorrow’.”
SNP colleague Roseanna Cunningham, meanwhile, said she had received assurance from Aviva that no one geographic area or business sector would be disproportionately hit by the changes.
Council leader Ian Miller called the news “disappointing” and said he hoped Aviva would do all it could to minimise job losses and support its staff, and advised that council re-employment services would be available.
The firm has 18,500 employees across the UK, with 1400 of them in Perth where they handle a mix of commercial underwriting and household insurance claims.
Approximately one in 20 roles across the company’s UK business could disappear as a result of the changes being brought in by new chairman John McFarlane.See further coverage in the business section of Saturday’s Courier