Jobs slash reveals true work picture

My first ‘proper’ job after I left school was working in a local call centre for one of the big high street banks. My colleagues were all in their early twenties and complacent as they believed they had secured themselves a good job for life.

Today this is sadly no longer the case. Frontline banking jobs are low paid, long hours and now also insecure. Your job could go at any minute and you may well read about it in the news before you hear it from your employer.

Banks are raking in huge profits, rewarding top executives with massive salaries and bonuses and throwing Britain’s youth on the scrapheap in favour of cheap technology to save money.

So today’s (Tuesday October 28) grim announcement that Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) has confirmed a further 9,000 job cuts and 150 branch closures is truly bad news for customers, communities and young people seeking a solid career.

The jobs, which will go over the next three years, are the latest in a series of cuts which have seen 30,000 jobs go since the banking crisis in 2008.

These jobs are now a lost opportunity for Britain’s youth – and exposes the truth behind the Tories’ myth of growing employment opportunity for all.

But the job losses do not stop Lloyd’s top executives from fulfilling their large pay potentials.

Unite national officer Rob MacGregor says that top executives’ pay should now be cut before Lloyds make any compulsory redundancies.

“The wallets of top executives at Lloyds should not be getting fat by forcing low paid workers onto the dole,” said Rob MacGregor. “If there are compulsory redundancies then executive pay should be cut first.”

Antonio Horta-Osorio, Lloyds Banking Group CEO, earns around ÂŁ3.2m in salary with a bonus of ÂŁ1.7m. The bank also reported pre-tax profits of ÂŁ1.61bn for the nine months to September 30.

Community loss

The bank, which is a quarter owned by the taxpayer, says it will be closing 200 branches but opening 50 new ones making the net closure 150. It has also abandoned its pledge to keep open ‘the last branch in town’.

Since 1990 the UK has lost almost half of its high street bank branches – more than 8,000. Another 2,500 are expected to close by the end of 2018. There are now more than 900 towns with just one bank left, and 1,200 communities have been left with no bank at all.

“The growing movement to shut last branches is one we should fight. My belief is that banks have a social responsibility to the communities they serve which means not abandoning customers,” said Derek French, director of the Campaign for Community Banking Services.

“Shoving a cash machine in a local supermarket is not enough. A hole in the wall simply won’t suffice if the bank’s hard-nosed decision is sending local traders to the wall,” he added.

Banks are eager to push their customers online because once technology has been developed it is a cheaper way of doing business.

But office for national statistics figures show that 6.7m — just under one in eight of the population — has never used the internet. Of these, 5.8m are over the age of 55.

Old Roan in the North West is one small town feeling the shattering effects of being left with no bank branch at all. Local resident and chairman of Aintree Village Parish Council, Peter Gill explains how being left with no local bank has affected the villages’ residents.

“Our nearest branch is now Black Bull. Elderly people with no car have to get two buses, if you have a car it is a very difficult place to park,” explained Peter.

“We have a very elderly population in Aintree Village and a great deal of them can’t use the internet, some of them also have mobility problems.”

Insecure jobs

Over the next three years roughly a tenth of Lloyd’s entire workforce will be replaced by digital technology. The bank intends to use video technology to provide remote advice to customers through a centralised system.

The bank has said it will try to minimise the impact of the job cuts by deploying some staff in new roles.

But this does little to lessen the fear felt by those frontline staff who have no idea if their jobs are safe or not.

A young Unite member from a Lloyds’ call centre spoke to UNITElive about what it’s like to work for the bank.

“I work alongside people with PhD’s. The truth is work is hard to come by round here. The bank pays a pound over the minimum wage. It certainly beats bar and shop work,” they said. “If jobs go from here I’m not sure what people will do for work.

“Saying that it has never felt like a secure job. Those working on the bottom level are constantly fearful for their jobs.”

Another worker expressed dismay on hearing through the media that their job could be cut, before the announcement came.

The confirmation by Lloyds follows last week’s leaks of the job losses to the press. “These are deeply unsettling times for Lloyd’s staff, who after days of speculation and leaks face yet another round of job cuts and a future of uncertainty,” added Rob MacGregor.

It is young people who will feel the threat the most.

“The job market here is not full of opportunities for young people. If this call centre closed people would need to travel to another part of the city in the hope of finding work,” said a call centre worker from the North West.

“Job losses in the finance sector restrict career opportunities. It’s a tough environment to work in. Although this centre is fairly safe there is always a fear of who is next.”

It’s been twelve years since I worked in a call centre and the job is almost unrecognisable to me. Who knows what the next twelve years hold for finance sector workers?