Unite slams RBS moves

RBS shares experienced their steepest fall in the FTSE 100 late last week after the bank posted a hefty ÂŁ2bn half-year loss, as it also announced that it would be abandoning its project to spin off the retail bank Williams and Glyn.

RBS, owned 73 per cent by the taxpayer, was hit by ÂŁ1.3bn in new legal charges and fees, including ÂŁ450m for PPI mis-selling and has posted losses for the ninth consecutive year in a row.

Since receiving a taxpayer bailout during the financial crisis, the bank’s total losses have amounted to £52bn.

The latest news comes as RBS has ramped up its campaign of offshoring jobs to India, a move Unite has condemned. Just last month, 66 jobs in RBS Fraud and Chargeback functions were lost to offshoring, which Unite branded as the “ultimate betrayal” of the loyal workforce.

And now, as RBS ditches plans seven years in the making to spin off Williams and Glyn, the workforce is yet again being let down, Unite argues.

RBS was ordered by the European Commission to divest the Williams and Glyn retail bank as standalone unit by 2017 as a condition of its ÂŁ45bn bailout.

But last week, RBS has said that Williams and Glyn could not survive on its own and has abandoned its plans to set it up as a separate unit, which it argues will cost more than the ÂŁ1.7bn it had originally estimated.

Instead, it announced its intention to sell off Williams and Glyn to another bank – Santander is thought to have expressed interest in acquiring its branches, customers and assets, as have Clydesdale and Virgin.

But the Williams and Glyn IT system, in which RBS had ploughed at least ÂŁ1.2bn to create, will likely no longer be needed.

This latest move throws the 6,000 staff working for the Williams and Glyn project – which has 1.8m personal customers, 250,000 small business and 314 branches – into uncertainty over their future.

Unite condemned the RBS’ decision to ditch its plans for William and Glyn, arguing that they desperately need clarity over what their future holds.

“There are clearly many questions that need to be answered regarding the bank’s repeated change of strategy over the past five years and the resulting instability and uncertainty for staff and their families,” said Unite national officer for finance Rob MacGregor.

“In addition, the bank needs to explain its actions to customers and the British public and why up to ÂŁ1.2bn of taxpayers’ money has been wasted on the Williams and Glyn project.”