THE north's biggest IT company Allstate is believed to be making a number of redundancies at its head office operations in Belfast.
The Irish News understands that the Chicago-headquartered company told its finance department - comprising around 25 staff - that all of their jobs were being transferred to India.
The announcement was made on Thursday via a Zoom call, and one source at the company indicated that the news “came entirely out of the blue”.
Allstate, which has around 2,200 employees at four sites across Northern Ireland, refused to give details of the numbers of redundancies or how the news was communicated.
But a spokesperson told the Irish News: “Allstate has been transforming to give customers the best experience at the lowest price.
“To do that, we’re constantly advancing our digital capabilities through our people and partners and making sure our teams are designed to best serve customers.
“When employees are impacted by our transformation, we help them find new opportunities at Allstate, with our partners, or we provide financial assistance and job placement support.”
The announcement comes just days after its parent company reported a loss of $310 million (£258m) in the fourth quarter of 2022 as car insurance underwriting losses continued to negatively impact results. Quarterly revenues rose slightly to $13.6 billion (£11.3 billion).
In January the Irish News revealed that Allstate NI plans to vacate its 30,000 sq ft workspace in Strabane this May when the current lease on its building expires.
At the time the company, which has had a presence in the town for more than 15 years and is one of Strabane's largest employers, insisted there would be no job losses as a result of that decision, as around 75 per cent of its employees work remotely.
In a statement in January, a spokesman told the Irish News: “Allstate NI employees have more choice about where they work and many are choosing to work from home. As a result, we no longer need as much office space and are leaving our Strabane office in mid-2023.”
The latest jobs blow comes as Allstate's boss in the north, John Healy (52), stepped away from the company in December after more than six years “to pursue new opportunities”.
