News

Barclays informed  its workforce on November 14 that it will be reducing 1,700 frontline roles from across its branch network. Cashiers, personal  bankers,  operational specialists,  branch  managers and assistant manager roles will be cut throughout 2014.  This is on top of last week's announcements of the closure of the Coventry and Dartford centres, which put around 600 workers at risk of redundancy.
 
The decision to move to increased automation across bank branches is incredibly significant for all bank users. Unite has argued that Barclays customers want well-staffed branches and would prefer to deal with the highly trained and professional staff that currently service their branches.

Dominic Hook, Unite national officer said: "It's a colossal mistake for Barclays Bank to announce 1,700 job cuts across its bank branches. These employees deliver high levels of service that customers of the bank benefit from. Such a massive reduction will be very detrimental to the bank and will also be hugely challenging for the staff remaining."

 UNI Finance, the Global Union for all finance and insurance workers representing 3 million employees in 237 trade unions world wide, says this is contrary to the Salz Report's recommendation of rebuilding lost confidence in the Bank. Firing competent workers will not improve respect or fill customers' need for competent advice by qualified bank workers.