Thousands more workers facing the axe

Published on Thursday 2 April 2009 21:45

THE jobs cull hitting parts of the British economy worsened yesterday when more than 3,000 posts were axed by firms including the UK's biggest insurer and an aircraft parts factory.

The biggest job losses will hit Norwich Union Life, which said 1,100 permanent and 590 contract jobs will be cut at sites including York and Norwich.

Almost 1,000 jobs will be lost at Bombardier's aircraft parts factory in Belfast because of a drop in production.

A further 260 jobs will be lost with the closure of a music CD manufacturing plant in Blackburn, Lancashire, while 130 positions will be axed by mobile phone component firm AVX, which is transferring work from Paignton in Devon to the Czech Republic.

Norwich Union Life, which is owned by Aviva, said the impact on staff will be minimised by natural turnover and redeployment, while a number of vacancies have been closed.

Most of the job cuts are in "business change" and IT, with the rest spread across other areas of the company, which is the UK's largest insurer.

Derek Simpson, joint leader of the union Unite, said the news would cause "alarm" across the insurance industry.