Barclays job losses

Unite, which represents staff across Barclays Bank, has called on the company to halt the job loss plans announced today in Cardiff and Coventry.

Barclays Bank has today (June 19) told nearly 400 staff that their jobs are either transferring to Northampton or being offshored to India.

Around 170 workers in Cardiff have today been informed that the work they do for the bank is being transferred to their Northampton site and around 30 roles are being sent to India.  At the same time 127 staff in Coventry have learned that their jobs are being moved to the Northampton site, with a further 39 being transferred to Pune, India.

Unite is opposing these job losses because there are limited options for alternative redeployment for impacted staff. Furthermore the cuts signify a deep blow for the local economies in Cardiff and Coventry.

“Barclays Bank has decided to cut hundreds of jobs in Cardiff and Coventry with an unacceptable business rationale,” said Unite national officer Dominic Hook. “The scale of this announcement means that many of the highly experienced and skilled staff in these workplaces have little prospect of redeployment within the bank.

“Unite is clear that Barclays Bank is failing in its responsibilities to its staff and customers in the Cardiff and Coventry areas,” he added. “These plans offer no current mitigation against the planned job losses and the union is demanding that the bank revisit these damaging plans.

“This will be a particularly bitter pill for the workforce in Cardiff as it follows a number of recent site closures in the region. By the time that these planned staff cuts are made the Barclays Cardiff workforce will be a fraction of the size that it was five years ago, which will have a devastating impact on the Welsh economy.  It will also be a major blow to colleagues in Coventry, who have also seen a number of major redundancy programmes in Barclays’ Coventry business in recent years.

“Unite officers are now on site with the staff in Cardiff and Coventry and will remain with them over the coming days. The union will also be engaging with local political representatives who will understandably be equally alarmed and wish to express opposition to these job losses.”

The staff impacted by this news work in fraud telephony, delayed payments, i24, prevention and disruption and support, merchant services complaints, underwriting, customer services, operations and also IT.