THE AA last night announced plans to cut 100 call centre jobs, 48 hours after the RAC said it was shedding 1,700 posts as part of an £80m cost-cutting measure.

More than 50 jobs will go in AA's Newcastle insurance centre, and the rest in Cardiff, as part of a restructuring programme aimed at saving the motoring group £12m a year.

The GMB union, which was derecognised by the AA earlier this year but still represents some of the 1,000 staff at Newcastle, said it was a huge blow to the region.

"This has come as a complete shock. It was only recently that the call centre was recruiting," a spokesman said.

He added: "We will represent our members and the best thing the rest of the staff can do is come back to the GMB and we can help them."

The AA, which is owned by two private equity firms following a £1.75bn takeover in October, said it would not be transferring work to India, despite estimates it could save them £24m.

Company spokesman Ian Crowder said: "By staying in the UK, we need to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Inevitably, that means reducing the head count.

"We don't want to make compulsory redundancies, so we hope to make these savings through voluntary redundancies."

Staff were told of the plans yesterday and full consultation began with the AA's recognised trade union - the AA Democratic Union.

The union's regional secretary, Alistair Maclean, said: "It is not usual for a company to go down the route of voluntary redundancies first because it costs a lot of money, so we have welcomed that."

On Tuesday, The Northern Echo reported plans by the RAC to shed 1,700 jobs, including 215 in its insurance centre in Darlington, as part of a cost-cutting scheme to aid the £1.1bn takeover by new parent company Aviva.

The AA yesterday said it was a "complete coincidence" that the two announcements came in the same week.