Pearl cuts 280 jobs in Glasgow

Sep 3 2008

Life assurance office to be scaled down

By Alasdair Northrop

Scotland’s financial services sector received yet another blow when  Pearl Group announced it is axing around 280 jobs in Glasgow.

The group is scaling down its Glasgow life assurance office as well as another in Peterborough to amalgamate operations at Wythall in Birmingham.

Union leader Graham Goddard said the decision was a slap in the face to a highly skilled and loyal workforce.

The Unite deputy general secretary said: "Unite members are shocked and many are angry.

“Over the last two years the workforce in Glasgow have been bounced from one employer to another. Despite this upheaval, they have remained professional and continued to deliver for their various employers, only to be rewarded by losing their jobs.”

Unite has called for the Pearl Group to give the union more detail around the business rationale for the decision and reiterated it’s opposition to any compulsory redundancies.

Over the last two years workers at Pearl have had a series of new employers. They were originally employed by Abbey which then sold its operations to Resolution which was subsequently taken over by Pearl last November.

In a statement Pearl Group said as part of its long-term strategy for its life businesses, it will be amalgamating three of its current business locations – Glasgow, Peterborough and Wythall - into one over the next three years, when Wythall will become its main operational centre.

It said the office in Glasgow, which currently employs 300 people, will be scaled down and the bulk of operations will be transferred to the group’s site in Wythall within 18 to 24 months.
 
Jonathan Moss, chief executive of Pearl Group, said: “The location strategy has, of course, been a difficult decision and was not made without extreme thought and consideration.  However, it was a necessary decision to enable our business to continue to be as effective as possible.  
 
“This move means Pearl is creating a vibrant single site of scale which will be efficient both today and into the future.  As part of this strategy, Pearl Group has moved from having two separate life divisions – Phoenix and Pearl – to one and this move will enable us to consolidate knowledge and experience, and to eliminate duplication of effort and inconsistency in our business operations.
 
“We understand that employees will be concerned about their future.

"Roles will be transferring to Wythall, and, to a lesser extent, London, from Glasgow and staff will be encouraged to apply for vacant roles as they come up.  

"Pearl is in discussions with the union, Unite and we are putting in place a programme of outplacement support for employees who will be leaving the organisation, to assist them achieving re-employment as soon as possible, though in the short term we want staff to remain with us.”
 
Prior to the acquisition by Pearl Group, Resolution outsourced its customer service, policy administration and IT functions to Capita in 2007, a move which transferred 1960 staff to Capita.  The move to Wythall does not affect staff at Capita.  
 
Glasgow based Resolution Asset Management, which employs 400 staff and is also part of the Pearl Group is not affected by this announcement.

The loss of financial services jobs is the latest in a series  as a result of consolidation in the sector,  the aftermath of the credit crunch and transferring of work overseas.

More than 1500 financial services jobs have been lost in the year so far including 300 at Capita in Glasgow and 164 at HSBC in Livingston.