UK life insurer, Aviva, is outsourcing 600 jobs to Pune in Maharashtra to reduce costs drawing criticism from Britain's largest trade union Unite, according to a report in Economic Times. Back-office jobs from York, Norwich and Sheffield will be relocated to Pune to achieve significant cost savings and bring about operational efficiency.

Last month, the insurance group announced 2,000 job cuts globally as part of its plan to achieve 400 million pounds in costs savings by this year-end. “We've previously talked about the need to reduce our expenditure to improve our business position. This is one of the measures we're taking in the UK life business to manage the business more efficiently,” said Louise Soulsby, head of media relations in Aviva UK Life.

BPO major WNS, that runs Aviva's BPO operations in India, provides a comprehensive spectrum of life and general insurance processing functions including policy administration and settlement along with finance and accounting, customer care and other support services.

Read the full report here