The company said online business has affected operations

The company said 250 posts would be lost in Glasgow and a further 200 in Perth.

Norwich Union's owner, Aviva, said 1,000 jobs would be moved to India and another 500 information technology staff would be out-sourced.

The firm said more customers were buying policies online.

Some of the personnel losses in Scotland would be offset by the transfer of about 150 posts from Newcastle and Belfast to Dundee, the company said.

Consumer habits

The redundancies in Glasgow affect 'back-office' posts in administration and processing.

Aviva said jobs would go at Norwich Union offices in Glasgow's Waterloo Street, Finnieston Street, West Regent Street and the Bishopbriggs call centre on the outskirts of Glasgow.

Consumers, independent financial advisers and brokers are increasingly operating in a self-service world Patrick Snowball, Norwich Union executive chairman See Aviva's share price

The customer service centre in Pitheavlis, Perth, has been earmarked for the brunt of the Scottish job losses.

Aviva currently employs 3,700 staff in Scotland and the restructure leaves 3,400 staff north of the border.

About 50% of the cuts were expected to come through compulsory redundancies.

In a statement to the stock market Aviva said: "The company will seek to minimise the number of compulsory redundancies through natural staff turnover and voluntary measures."

Norwich Union chief executive Patrick Snowball said that changes in consumer habits meant that the company was operating in an "increasingly competitive and dynamic environment".

Tough choices

"Consumers, independent financial advisers and brokers are increasingly operating in a self-service world," he said.

Workers' union Amicus called the move disappointing and said its view on the cuts was one of "extreme anger".

David Fleming of Amicus said that the union had "a zero tolerance of off-shoring jobs leading to compulsory redundancies".

Aviva said the move was part of earlier-announced plans to shift 7,800 jobs overseas by the end of next year.

The company said it would look to "minimise the number of compulsory redundancies", but added that it needed to make difficult decisions if it wanted to safeguard future profitability and its industry position.

Norwich Union has a call centre in Bishopbriggs

Aviva said that while it would be shutting some offices in cities such as Belfast, Glasgow, Stevenage, Norwich and Cambridge, it would not completely shut down operations in those locations.

Staff affected by the latest job cuts would be offered retraining and the chance to move within the company, a spokeswoman explained.

Aviva will also shut 107 of its high street driving schools - including eight in Scotland - by December next year, with all lessons then booked over the phone or on the internet.

BSM schools in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Hamilton, Inverness, Kilmarnock and Paisley will shut with the loss of about 30 posts.

We asked for your reaction to the announcement.

I have worked for Norwich Union in Waterloo Street in Glasgow for a year now and this move does not suprise me at all as the attitude of the company has always been one of the least staff focussed I have ever seen, despite the company being heavily critisised for it's poor level of service in it's Indian call centres they continue to cynically place profits ahead of anything else. The way the company is run by the top managers led me to find a new job and handed in my notice last week. I am relieved I did this now.

Sean McNamara

I for one will be moving my business away from Norwich Union... To a UK business that does outsource to India. More people should also do this, you do not get same level of service through off-shore call centres.