Job losses feared in Chester after Lloyds TSB announce 15,000 jobs will go

Jun 30 2011 by Katie Oakes, Chester Chronicle

MORE uncertainty hangs over the staff at Lloyds TSB in Chester following the shock announcement that 15,000 jobs will be cut nationwide.

This latest news comes just three months after the bank made 140 redundancies in the city.

The roles will go by 2014 and were announced today as part of a strategic review to simplify the group and make £1.5 billion in annual savings in 2014.

Since the HBOS merger in 2009, 27,500 jobs have already been lost; today’s announcement puts that figure at a staggering 43,500.

This wave of cuts looks set to hit middle management and back office staff the hardest, but Lloyds claims there will be no compulsory redundancies immediately.

A spokesperson at the bank said: “Over a three year period, 15,000 people would leave the business through natural turnover, such as retirement and voluntary redundancies

“The fact is that the roles won’t be replaced.

“We are trying to reduce our costs and clean up the balance sheet.”

In Chester, workers have faced uncertainty since the HBOS merger with extensive job losses as well as the closure of the Handbridge site in March

2010.

Only three months ago, in March 2011, 140 jobs were cut in the retail and wholesale divisions in Chester, out of 570 job losses nationally.

Ged Nicholls, the general secretary of Accord, the union who represents workers at Lloyds Banking Group said employees were ‘shocked and disappointed’.

He said: “We have already had employees contacting Accord to express their shock at the scale of the planned job reductions, and also sharing Accord’s disappointment that some of the outcomes of the Review appeared in the press over the last two weeks before the bank has properly engaged with its employees and their unions.

“LBG employees are extremely concerned by today’s news, not only what it might mean for them and their workmates, but also the possible effect it may have on customer service.”

David Fleming, Unite national officer, said: “This review is merely another box-ticking exercise to give this bank - which has already, since its creation two years ago, cut over 27,000 staff - an excuse to sack more employees.”