Hundreds of city jobs at risk as Lloyds cuts 5,000 UK posts

Published on Wednesday 11 November 2009 08:29

HUNDREDS more banking jobs are set to go in Edinburgh after Lloyds said it is to axe 5,000 UK posts by the end of next year.

Around 1,000 positions are to be axed in Scotland, with Edinburgh and Glasgow expected to bear the brunt of the cuts.

The move will reportedly result in a net reduction of 500 permanent Scottish jobs as some employees will be re-deployed internally and some temporary staff and contractors will go.

The group, which took over HBOS last year, said positions were being cut across its operations, insurance and retail divisions.

There was speculation that the company would be looking at operations within Scottish Widows and Clerical Medical as part of the cuts, but it is understood that Scottish Widows will not bear the brunt of the job losses.

Union leaders in Scotland said they expected the axe to fall among back-office staff. Lloyds has already announced 900 Scottish redundancies this year.

Councillor Tom Buchanan, the city's economic development leader, said the local authority had put measures in place to help those affected back into work.

He said: "The most important thing for Edinburgh is that the banking sector, the council, other public-sector areas and the Scottish Government work together.

"We know there's going to be fewer numbers employed in the financial sector in the city, but we should not think of the big banks as the full extent of that sector.

"There are investment houses and the likes of Tesco Personal Finance and Virgin Money."

"Lloyd's have been very good at giving us an overall picture about where they want to get to. We will continue discussions with them about where the numbers are going to bottom out."

While Lloyds claimed the cuts would be "significantly mitigated" by redeployment and the release of contractors, temporary staff and offshore staff, union leaders are preparing for a fight.

Ged Nichols, general secretary of Accord, the union representing the largest number of former HBOS staff now working in Lloyds, said: "Some job losses were inevitable but the scale of changes announced will leave many staff in shock."

Rob MacGregor, national officer of the Unite union, said Lloyds had shown its "corporate arrogance", by slashing staff after receiving taxpayer support.

Mark Fisher, group integration director with Lloyds, said: "Our commitment is to keep colleagues fully informed about our integration plans. We will work closely with our colleagues affected to help them through these changes."