Union says hundreds of RBS jobs ‘at risk’
● IT restructuring could see 650 staff axed ‘and leave customer paying price’
Nearly 900 IT jobs at Royal Bank of Scotland have been put at risk as part of a major reorganisation proposed by the lender, it is claimed.
The bank, which is 71 per cent owned by the taxpayer, is mulling over changes to its operating model that would result in an overall reduction in IT roles.
It is understood most of the roles under consideration are in London.
The Unite union branded the move, which it says could see 650 permanent staff and 230 contractors axed, as “wholly unacceptable”.
But RBS declined to comment on numbers, saying it “did not recognise” the figures given by Unite.
An RBS spokesman said: “Inevitably as RBS becomes a simpler, smaller bank focused on the UK and Ireland, our technology function will undergo reorganisation and will reduce over time.
“As we develop long term plans for our technology business, we have in the interests of transparency started to share our emerging proposals on a future operating model.”
RBS insisted that it has not consulted on any headcount reduction, instead stating that its plans represent a “direction of travel”.
“Our proposed plans are designed to reduce the number of contractors we employ and strengthen our permanent workforce, and while we are downsizing in London, we are reinvesting in other UK hubs,” the bank said yesterday.
According to the Unite union, the cuts will amount to a 65 per cent reduction of contractors at the lender’s London IT function by 2020.
Rob Macgregor, Unite national officer, said: “The decade of slashing jobs has done nothing to boost morale, increase consumer confidence or improve the bank’s performance.
“By 2020 just a fraction of the RBS IT function will remain, leaving this organisation operating a skeleton service with the customers and remaining staff paying the price.
“This British taxpayer-funded bank should be concentrating on investing in jobs here in the UK, rather than wholesale cuts.”
The bank’s global workforce has reduced from 226,000 in 2007 to about 77,000.
In May, it announced it was cutting nearly 250 IT posts as part of an overhaul of its backoffice operations.
Mrmacgregoradded:“rbs’s fixation with cutting employee numbers, restructuring and offshoring work that could reasonably be done by displaced staff within the RBS IT community is unacceptable.”
He added: “Unite is angry that the massive scale of IT job losses will sap morale, productivity and faith in the company. Such massive staff reductions will place a massive burden on any long-serving remaining staff who retain thebank’ssystems’knowledge.
“Moreover, Unite is clear that these plans merely reinforce the perception that sacrificing the livelihoods of RBS employees and their families is the price this employer is all too willing to pay to appease shareholders.”