RBS axe falling on 3,500 more jobs despite £1.5bn profit
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Royal Bank of Scotland is set to cut 3,500 jobs, bringing the total number of roles slashed by the bank since 2009 up to 21,500.
The state-owned bank has told 3,500 staff that 12 processing offices in the UK will be shut down.
A third of the job losses are as a result of the sale of 318 RBS branches last month to Santander.
Trade union Unite national officer Rob MacGregor says the job cuts are a “horror story” for RBS staff in light of the bank’s £1.1bn profit announcement last month.
As well as the 12 planned office closures, the bank is reviewing a further three offices in the UK. RBS has also announced plans to move more than 500 roles offshore to its existing technology operations in the US, India and the Far East.
MacGregor says: “Unite is appalled that this 84 per cent taxpayer-supported institution has, since 2009, cut 21,500 staff under the banner of a strategic review.
“The scale of the cuts beggars belief and staff across the country will be left reeling from this news.
“We continue to see a financial services sector that thinks the skills and expertise of its staff are a disposable asset, with scant regard for the high level of service that these very same staff provide to their customers.”
An RBS spokesman says: “Cutting jobs is the most difficult part of our work to rebuild RBS and repay taxpayers for their support.
“We continue to make efficiencies across our business and adjust our plans in line with the divestments we have been required to make by the European Union.”
RBS will be closing offices in Leeds, Bolton, Enfield and Harrogate in 2011 and will shut down a further eight in Norwich, Bradford, Telford, Plymouth, Milton Keynes, Liverpool, Bristol and Borehamwood in 2012. The Leicester, Southampton and Nottingham centres are under review.
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