UK life and pensions outfit Friends Provident says it is to cut an unspecified number of jobs - including IT positions - at its Manchester offices.
The firm will leave its Manchester Express building - where 465 staff are based - by the end of 2009. Some jobs will go to a smaller office in the city whilst others will be transferred to various locations around the country.
However, Friends Provident says "a number" of redundancies will take place, mainly within customer services, IT and other head office functions.
Although the company says it will not know the number of redundancies until an employee consultation period is complete, financial services union Unite claims around 280 jobs will be lost.
Sarah Carpenter, Unite officer, says: "Unite is deeply disappointed that there will be around 280 job losses at Friends Provident in Manchester. The closure of the main building in the city centre is a heavy blow to staff.
"Unite is angered that there has been a total failure by Friends Provident to involve staff representatives in this review, despite being the recognised union."
Earlier this week Unite revealed that outsourced Co-operative Bank staff working at French IT services firm Steria have voted to go on strike over the offshoring of their jobs to India.