WORKERS at finance giant Skandia were today reeling after being told 150 staff are to go by the end of the year as it moves to slash costs at its Southampton headquarters.

The cuts comes as the Daily Echo publishes a league table of the highest earning directors in Hampshire, which features Skandia boss Nick Poyntz-Wright at number nine with a £700,000 paypacket.

It is the second time the axe has been wielded at the pensions and investment company in four months after it moved to close all its regional offices with the loss of 100 jobs, although 35 transferred to Southampton.

Currently, 1,900 are employed at the landmark Skandia House.

Mr Poyntz-Wright told the Daily Echo much of Skandia’s business was transferring online, meaning fewer people were required but said more job losses in the future were unlikely.

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He said: “We expect there will need to be 150 job losses. We don’t anticipate that there will be more. This should set us up for a successful future.

“More and more of what we do is online.We need to respond to that with technology and work more efficiently. You still have to have the people and the personal service alongside.

Clicks on their own are not enough. The people we have with the skills we need are going to be increasingly important.

“Where we need to reduce headcount we will seek to do so, where possible, through natural turnover, nonreplacement of leavers and n o n - renewal of contracts.”

He added his salary “fairly reflected” the group’s success under his leadership.

“We have within the whole group of companies – we are part of the Old Mutual group – a remuneration policy that aims to make sure that there’s a fair market-based reward for the job that is being done,” he added.

A Skandia worker, who did not want to be named, said: “I’m sure nobody is going to like the fact they’re being made redundant.

They said it’s something that everybody takes personally but it’s just the business going in a certain direction.

“The amount the CEO gets doesn’t bother me too much, it’s the nature of the business, to know someone gets that much makes you think they must have been really good.”

Another said: “The atmosphere in the building is mixed at the moment.

“There is fear there to a certain extent.

“It’s just a strategy for the future. In today’s climate when we don’t know what we’re facing it’s difficult to say that people aren’t at risk.

“I’m not really angered by the CEO’s salary. They are answerable if they don’t perform just like anyone else and if you want people to produce you have to pay the money.”