Of all the places to be at Aviva in Ireland, the European operation is surely the worst

When Aviva relocated its European HQ to Dublin two years ago, this new division suddenly became the place to be.

Aviva Europe was the new pan-European operation in Dublin and employees in the domestically-focused Aviva Ireland were encouraged to switch across, the company was recruiting relatively aggressively for this division externally, and people were even hired from overseas as it started from scratch.

Now, as the company radically downsizes in Ireland, it's the place where losing your job is practically guaranteed.

Much has been made of Aviva's decision to cut 950 jobs (with the potential for another 300 roles to be outsourced) from its current headcount in the country of 1,770. But while the majority of job losses (770) will hit Aviva Ireland, ALL of the 180 roles within Aviva Europe have been earmarked for redundancy.

According to the union Unite, 200 staff are employed in each of the support centres in Cork and Galway, 180 people are at Aviva Europe in Dublin and around 1,200 across all divisions in Dublin.

This means, as anticipated, headcount within its Aviva Europe operation will be decimated as it relocates its HQ back to the UK.

Specialist insurance recruiters have told us about the excitement around the raft of new jobs at Aviva Europe in 2009, which attracted many top insurance candidates. Now, most are ruing the move in the wake of last week's redundancy announcement.

Generally, though, most staff in Aviva's Irish operation remain in a state of shock and CVs haven't been fired out in panic looking for new roles.

The exception, suggest recruiters, are those employees who have been with the firm for less than two years, who are not expecting much of a redundancy package and are applying for roles before a flood of candidates hits the market.

Unite also said that the average salary in Aviva's Irish operation was €35k, suggesting that staff costs in the country are relatively high.

This is slightly misleading; rank and file staff in the call centre operations in Cork and Galway would be earning anything from €20-25k, suggest recruiters. Junior underwriters would be on a similar figure, rising to €35k after five years and around €60-80k at the more senior end.

The average salary figures would also include actuaries, who can expect €55-60k two years post-qualification, according to figures from Robert Walters. This rises to €125-140k at the senior end.