BNP Paribas Fortis to shed 750 Belgian jobs -union

BRUSSELS, Nov 6 (Reuters) - BNP Paribas Fortis, the largely Belgian arm of France's BNP Paribas <BNPP.PA, has plans to cut 750 jobs in Belgium over the next three years, a union official said on Friday.

The group told a works council meeting on Friday that it would cut a total of 2,000 jobs and create 1,250 new positions by the end of 2012, LBC union delegation leader Luc Broos said.

"The unions are positively surprised. It's very different from what would have happened in a stand-alone scenario," he said, adding BNP Paribas Fortis aimed to avoid forced redundancies as much as possible.

He said the Belgian job cuts also included a few 100 people made redundant since the end of March 2009.

A BNP Paribas Fortis spokeswoman declined to comment beyond saying that BNP Paribas, the eurozone's second-biggest bank by market capitalisation, planned to unveil company-wide plans on its investor day on Dec. 1.

BNP Paribas Fortis employs 18,000 people in Belgium and 34,000 people worldwide.

BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) took control of the Belgian banking arm of Belgian-Dutch financial group Fortis (FOR.BR), which was broken up over the past year.

The break-up, led by Belgium and the Netherlands, was challenged by a group of shareholders who argued that Fortis should be left as a stand-alone banking and insurance group. (Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop, editing by Will Waterman)