News

The big four UK banks with RBS, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays all announcing their results for 2013.

The banks’ performances were mixed from HSBC making a staggering £13.6 billion in pre-tax profits to RBS reporting historic losses of £8.2 billion.

But regardless of whether the banks were raking it in or not, one thing  they all have in common is that they are back to showering their senior executives with huge sums of money regardless of performance.

No such luck if you are working in a call centre, a branch or a back office. You are working hard for customers, doing unpaid overtime, your workloads are increasing, you are often under great pressure to perform, but your job is constantly at risk.

At HSBC pensions are under attack, and at Lloyds the latest pay deal is just two per cent when its profits doubled to £6.2 billion. At Barclays and RBS there is still real uncertainty over jobs.

From the financial crisis to PPI mis-selling, bank workers are being forced to pay the price for past failures which were not of their making,while those at the top continue to enjoy bumper bonuses some with the help of taxpayers’ money.

The banks cannot continue cutting staff numbers to the bone – it’s time to focus on job security and customer service.

The more active you are in your union Unite, the better chance we have together, to bring about the change bank workers are in need of.