Bank staff on tenterhooks (From Worcester News)

Bank staff on tenterhooks

5:40am Wednesday 4th November 2009

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STAFF at some of Worcester’s banks face a nervous wait to find out if their jobs are safe after cuts were announced at the Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC.

Staff at the RBS branch in St Nicholas Street were told the company was restructuring and would cut 3,700 jobs from branches in the UK from May 2010 in a bid to modernise.

They, along with people from the bank’s Hereford and Kidderminster branches, are among workers asked to consider voluntary redundancy, flexible working, job sharing or redeployment.

Compulsory redundancies will follow although RBS bosses have promised they will be a last resort.

A RBS spokeswoman said it was impossible to know where the cuts would be made during the Retail Banking division restructuring.

She said: “It’s across our branch networks so it’s in branches up and down the country.

“Staff now have decisions that they need to make.

“We are making compulsory redundancies very much a last resort.”

The bank says the cuts are necessary because it has under invested in its branches and customer infrastructure at a time when people are changing how they bank.

HSBC also announced it will cut 1,700 jobs from its UK workforce.

The bank said most of the jobs would be lost from its credit card and collections operations but some would come from back office staff in its branches.

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