AXA’s announcement today in respect of changes to its Commercial Lines Intermediary operation comes with the disappointing news that 106 jobs have been put at risk as part of the process. Unite has been involved in ongoing consultation with the company about the changes and is confident that many staff who have been put at risk will be able to be relocated into new roles and the number of redundancies will be much reduced. We do appreciate however that being put at risk is not nice and would encourage members to engage with their local reps on issues of concern. If you do not have a Unite rep in your branch, please look at the list of reps here see who to contact.

Click here to read the latest Unite in AXA newsletter on the changes to working hours in AXA Business Insurance Glasgow.

Please leave your feedback below or talk to your local union rep.

Click here to read the latest Unite in AXA newsletter on the new flexitime charter introduced in Commercial.

Please leave your feedback below or talk to your local union rep.

Today’s announcement that Personal Lines Intermediary will transfer into Amanda Blanc’s business area will come as no surprise given press speculation to this end and the fact that it makes a lot of sense for intermediaries to be dealing with one part of the business not two.

AXA has entered consultation with Unite over the transfer and we are pleased to note that they do not anticipate any significant impact as a result of the switch, indeed many staff will notice little, if any difference, in their day to day activity.

 We have flagged a number of issues which we would like to discuss further with the company, such as the impact on the Commercial combined operating ratio of the inclusion of the Personal Lines Intermediary business and its potential impact on the Commercial bonus multiplier. We have also asked what impact the split will have on Direct & Corporate Partners COR and their bonus going forward.

If you have any questions or concerns arising out of today’s announcement, please speak to your local Unite rep so we can ensure they are addressed at a national level.

Click here to read the latest Unite in AXA newsletter on yesterday’s announcement in Commercial Lines. Please leave your feedback below or talk to your local union rep.

Click here to read the latest Unite in AXA newsletter on today’s announcement in AXA Insurance. Please leave your feedback below or talk to your local union rep.

Following Paul Evans’ announcement that he was splitting AXA Insurance into two distinct business units, Unite in AXA met briefly with Steve Hardy (personal) and John O’Neill (commercial) earlier this week to hear their high level thoughts.

Whilst the inevitable cost challenge facing commercial and personal will be high on their agenda, both CEO’s stated that Paul Evans had made it clear to them that redundancies had to be bottom of the list and he would not countenance getting rid of staff now and then recruiting when the business expands further down the line, a stance Unite is extremely pleased to see adopted.

We touched on the need to improve the working culture in AXA (indeed John and Steve beat us to the punch on this) and also the need to empower staff to do their jobs and remove the layers of bureaucracy and sign off that stagnates decision making within AXA which found favour with all parties.

Unite in AXA will be meeting both John and Steve again in November for a more detailed discussion on their plans. No doubt we will disagree on some details but the broad thrust of what the company want and what the union want is identical (a profitable stable business) so hopefully this initial meeting bodes well for the future.

Today’s announcement of the changes in AXA Insurance and the establishment of two separate business units (the personal lines one under Swiftcover’s Steve Hardy), may well have caused some concern for members working in these areas.

Unite in AXA are currently commencing consultation with AXA regarding any possible plans it may have for these areas and would like to ensure any members concerns are addressed at as early a stage as possible.

If you have any queries or concerns which you would like us to put forward can you please advise your local union rep (a list can be found here) or post them as a comment on here below this story (if you don’t want the comment published, just indicate this and we will ensure it is kept it offline).