RBS ruthlessly cuts 3,700 jobs from high street branches
ROYAL Bank of Scotland is to slash 3,700 frontline jobs from its high street branches in a bid to modernise the way the bank operates, the company announced today.
The redundancies, which will take effect from May next year, follow a strategic review of the bank which now is 70 per cent taxpayer owned.
Unions have attacked the move and angrily denounced the job losses as “absolute madness”.
Unite national officer, Rob MacGregor, said: "Essentially RBS has decided that frontline costs should be cut, to fund the crisis caused by the City bankers.
“This move to reduce frontline clerical branch staff by up to a third is short-sighted in the extreme, high street banks are busier then ever as customers increasingly seek a trusted friendly local service.
“The union is angry that this majority taxpayer-owned bank has totally misjudged the public’s appetite for a return to traditional banking.
“RBS is clearly attempting to force customers to use automated services and the internet in order to do their banking, just to make short-term financial savings.
“Unite believes that nothing compares to the personal, customer experience received from a bank worker. The management should re-think this announcement and not force people to use an inferior banking service.
“The staff hit by this decision will be amongst the lowest paid within RBS, some of the longest serving and most loyal who have worked in the local branch network for many years.
“Real questions must be answered by management about how they expect to give customers the high quality, personalised service they currently enjoy from their local branch after they pull out staff in every community across the UK.”
The announcement comes as plans to break up RBS and Lloyds Banking Group following orders from the European Commission are set to be revealed tomorrow.
The duo have been told to sell off parts of their business to safeguard competition concerns as the price of State support.
The Government hopes the sales - as well as the break-up of Northern Rock into ’good’ and ’bad’ banks confirmed last week - will tempt new entrants and create three new UK players to raise competition as the sector gradually recovers from last year’s crisis.
