‘Disastrous’ race to the bottom

Lloyds bank has today announced cuts to 625 jobs across several divisions. This includes the offshoring of IT workers to India in a dangerous ‘race to the bottom’ warned Unite.

Cuts include the offshoring of up to 82 roles in IT departments to the bank’s operations in India. Recent IT ‘glitches’ across the major banks have proven that offshoring IT support in the name of cost inevitably impacts both the bank and customers.

Today’s announcement is part of the 9,000 job cuts announced by the bank in 2014 as Lloyds continues to swing the axe in the name of ‘efficiency.’ Job losses will be followed by a recruitment freeze in several divisions, while many remaining staff will be asked to go through a new ‘assessment and selection’ process, increasing worries of cuts to come.

Other impacted divisions include Consumer Finance, Commercial Banking, Group Risk, and People, Legal & Strategy, impacting the bank’s back office sites in London, Brighton, Gloucester, Leeds, Halifax and Wolverhampton.

These cuts are taking a heavy toll on the remaining workforce. 74 per cent of Lloyds workers have reported symptoms of work-related stress, while 80 per cent report having to work additional unpaid overtime every week just to keep up with the rising workload.

“It is alarming that Lloyds is continuing to offshore IT roles in the name of driving down cost,” said Unite regional officer John Morgan-Evans. “This simply means that the bank wants to pay an IT worker in India less for the same work carried out in the UK. This disastrous race to the bottom hurts our members and inevitably impacts customers.

“Unite has made it clear that ‘efficiency’ cannot simply mean axing more jobs while expecting the same work to fall on fewer shoulders,” he added.

“The bank forgets that these relentless cuts have a human cost. Unpaid overtime and work-related stress are already at endemic levels across the bank and this will reach a crisis point if Lloyds continues to swing the axe.”