Aviva is to cut more than 6% of its global workforce with 2000 roles across the UK, Europe and Asia being made redundant.
Employees at the insurer were informed today that the roles will be reduced over the next six months.
In a bid to see off a repeat of past criticism over its handling of its redundancy programme, the firm said in a statement that it was "communicating the estimated overall scale of changes" as "part of Aviva's commitment to employees and unions to inform them as soon as it can about decisions that impact our people".
It added that it is "consulting with employee representative bodies and will provide further information to its people on role reductions as soon as the detail is available".
Aviva has also made wide-reaching changes to its redundancy terms, which will be implemented in two phases. However, staff impacted in the next six months will still receive the current four weeks' redundancy pay for each year of service.
From 1 May, redundancy pay for UK staff will be capped at 78 weeks, including any payment made in lieu of notice. There will also be no enhanced terms beyond contractual notice periods. From 1 December it is also reducing its redundancy pay to two weeks' pay for each year of service, capped at 78 weeks.
Mark Wilson, group chief executive officer, said: "I know this is difficult news for our employees but these changes are essential if we are to remain competitive.
"Aviva needs to become a more efficient and agile organisation to unlock its potential. We must take tough decisions on costs to provide our customers with great value products and ensure our future success. I am determined that Aviva gets through this phase of our business transformation as quickly as possible."
The job reductions are part of a programme to reduce expenses across the whole business. In its 2012 full-year results published in March 2013, it said it has already realised £275m annualised cost savings as part of its target to reduce costs by in excess of £400m.
