填空题 Redundancies Threatened in Insurance Takeover
0 Hundreds of insurance workers were facing redundancy last night after
00 two companies announced as they were joining forces. The redundancies
34 are under threatened by a ￡4 billion takeover of Bastion Insurance
35 which has been a 17,500-strong workforce, by overseas rival Sunshine
36 Provincial, which employs a staff of 20,000. A spokesperson for
37 Bastion workers who accepted there would be rationalization of the two
38 companies' operations, causing redundancies. However, since there was
39 relief when workers heard the job losses would be nowhere near the
40 5,000 level initially were feared. These bigger cuts would have resulted if
41 Bastion had accepted that a bid from Total Insurance two weeks ago. It opted
42 instead of for joining up with Sunshine, whose employees are mostly based
43 abroad. The spokeperson added, "Recently we were talking with about thousands of
44 redundancies, so this is at best for all. "Experts predict that this is only one of many
45 such developments that can be expected in the insurance industry in the near future.