This article is from page 26 of the 2011-02-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 26 JPG
WORKERS based at the old Halifax Insurance centre in Shannon will have to wait more then six week before being told which among the 300-strong workforce will lose their jobs. The St Andrew’s Group in Shannon, formerly known as Halifax Insurance, confirmed last week that 80 people are to be let go from their Shannon operations.
These latest job cuts come less than a year after Lloyds Banking Group, who owns the the St Andrew’s Group, announced that 21 people were to be let go because the company no longer going to operate in the payment protection insurance market.
Workers at the St Andrew Group were told last week that as much as 80 per cent of workers in some departments are to be let go while other departments are to be largely untouched. The Clare People also understands that every worker at the Shannon company is to be interviewed in the coming weeks before any decision on final redundancies is made.
These 80 redundancies form part of an overall cut of 200 jobs from the insurance section of the Lloyds Banking Group in the UK and Ireland.
“Lloyds Banking Group is today announcing 200 role reductions mainly within its insurance division as part of its ongoing integration programme. Lloyds Banking Group is committed to working through these changes with employees in a careful and sensitive way. All affected employees have been briefed by their line manager,” said a spokesperson from Lloyds. “The group’s union partners, Accord, LTU and Unite, were consulted prior to this announcement and will continue to be consulted throughout the process.
“The group’s policy is always to use natural turnover and to redeploy people wherever possible to retain their expertise and knowledge within the group. By making less use of contractors and agency employees, it reduces the impact on permanent staff. Where it is necessary for employees to leave the company, it will look to achieve this by offering vol- untary severance.”
These latest cuts mean that the Shannon-based operation will have lost just over 30 per cent of it’s entire workforce in just 12 months.
The St Andrew’s Group is a leading specialist creditor insurance provider. It manages claims and customer service on behalf of clients such as MBNA, Sainsbury’s Bank and AA Personal Finance.
In June of 2006, Halifax Insurance Ireland announced that it would be generate 185 new jobs in Shannon over the following five years.