RBS axes 1,400 jobs ‘to focus on what matters’

Union fury as Scots HQ bears brunt of the latest round of redundancies

ROYAL Bank of Scotland yesterday announced it is axing 1,400 jobs in the latest round of redundancies since being bailed out by the taxpayer.

The beleaguered state-owned bank said the retail posts would go over the next two years – nearly half f rom i ts HQ in Edinburgh.

It is the latest blow to RBS, which has already slashed thousands of jobs since it was rescued from the brink of bankruptcy at the height of the financial crisis.

Yesterday the bank said the cuts were part of plans to restructure its retail head office in the UK, but denied that ‘customer-facing’ staff would be affected. However, critics condemned the move – which comes as RBS moves back into profit after years of heavy losses – as ‘brutal and irresponsible’.

More than 40 per cent of staff affected are based in Edinburgh. The majority of the remainder are in London, with some in smaller centres such as Birmingham, Manchester and Bristol.

About 700 staff across the country were told yesterday their jobs were under threat in the first phase of the cuts.

The changes affect support staff for the bank’s retail arm, including those working in communications, marketing and customer analytics.

RBS says it is refocusing resources on ‘things that matter most’ to customers, with branch refurbish-

‘Brutal and irresponsible’

ments and investment in mobile and online services.

But Dominic Hook, of the Unite union, said: ‘This is brutal and irresponsible behaviour from RBS, which is almost entirely owned by the taxpayer. It is high time the banks took social responsibilities seriously.’

With the bank making £826million in the first quarter of the year, there was no business case ‘for cutting jobs so drastically’.

He added: ‘RBS argues that the restructure will make the bank more customer-focused but a bank can’t be more customer-focused with 1,400 fewer staff. Unite is demanding no compulsory redundancies and we expect this stateowned bank to do everything to ensure this is the case.’

However, Ross McEwan, chief executive of RBS’s UK retail arm, said: ‘To serve our customers well we have to ensure that our resources are focused on the things that matter most to them. That is why we are investing £700million in the next three years in new and improving services.

‘Regrettably, we can only do that by restructuring the way we work in head office so that every effort is concentrated on supporting our customers and the frontline staff that serve them.’

Yesterday’s announcement comes in the wake of a number of banks slashing their UK staff.

Mr Hook said: ‘ The i ndustry almost caused the economy to implode in 2008 and now it is contributing to a jobs crisis.’

Scottish Finance Secretary John Swinney said: ‘This is disappointing news for those involved and will be a deeply worrying time for those staff affected and their families.’