Lloyds TSB and Aviva face action over offshoring and executive pay
Finance sector union Amicus has threatened a campaign of industrial action in the insurance industry over the next 12 months.
And Lloyds TSB and Aviva will be first in the firing line.
The union's financial services conference agreed last week to pursue a strategy of industrial action using "any means necessary", Amicus national officer David Fleming said.
Fleming said the union planned to step up its activity in response to worker concerns over issues such as executive pay and offshoring.
"There's a groundswell of opinion building among financial services workers," he said. "This is underlined by a growing gap of trust between employers and employees."
Fleming said Lloyds TSB and Norwich Union (NU) parent company Aviva would be targets of any action.
"The next big offshoring announcement, which we're expecting in the next three weeks to three months, will start people voting with their feet."
He said potential actions could include bans on overtime, working to rule or strikes.
Since 2003, NU has expanded its presence in India to more than 2,500 staff. Recently, it said it would launch another pilot in Sri Lanka, involving 25 general insurance jobs.
In February this year, Lloyds TSB announced an offshoring pilot involving 150 general insurance jobs.
It extended a guarantee to staff that there would be no redundancies in 2004 as a result of the move, but it did not rule out further offshoring in 2005.
AXA, Royal & SunAlliance and Allianz Cornhill are among the UK's other general insurers with offshoring programmes running in India.
