Union leaders today raised fears that up to 350 jobs will be lost after insurance giant Axa announced plans to outsource work to another company.

Unite said it was concerned that Axa staff in Bristol, Coventry and Basingstoke will be affected by the announcement that Capita had been selected as a preferred bidder to administer 3.2 million mature life and pensions policies.

Capita said it was not able to rule out long-term redundancies of up to 350, adding that it would try to minimise compulsory lay-offs.

Unite said it will try to minimise the possibility of up to 350 redundancies over the five years following the transfer, and will urge Axa to redeploy staff at risk to other roles.

Regional officer David Kennedy said: "Unite has been in consultation with AXA over this for some time, although it has only recently become clear that the intention is to go with the outsourcing option. The possibility of redundancies is of significant concern to Unite and our members at Axa.

"We have ongoing concerns regarding the impact this outsourcing will have on our members. We are currently negotiating with Axa to secure additional guarantees that go beyond the minimum required by the TUPE (protection of employment) legislation."

Axa Sun Life chief executive Paul Evans said: "I am confident that this proposed partnership will provide real benefits for our customers and our business while offering better opportunities for our employees as the scale of the mature portfolio allows us to focus our resources on implementing our strategy to become the preferred company in each of our markets."