Lloyds axes 550 jobs as 
agency staff spark row

Unite claimed the cuts were on top of 1,340 job losses announced in January but the bank said the jobs were included in previously announced reductions.

The union said that while the bank continued to cut directly employed jobs, the group was still taking on more agency workers.

Unite national officer Dominic Hook said: “Lloyds cannot continue to cut now then ask questions later.

“It’s madness that the bank has so many agency workers when it’s cutting so many permanent jobs.

“Lloyds is looking for a period of stability and growth but it won’t be achieved by continuous and damaging job cuts. The bank must put an end to mass redundancies and instead foster job security, pay workers fairly and concentrate on customer service.”

Lloyds said the 550 jobs would be cut from its risk, insurance, commercial banking, retail and wealth, asset finance and international divisions.

“Lloyds Banking Group is committed to working through these changes with employees in a careful and sensitive way. All affected employees have been briefed by their line manager today.

“The group’s policy is always to use natural turnover and to redeploy people wherever possible to retain their expertise and knowledge within the group.

“Where it is necessary for employees to leave the company, it will look to achieve this by offering voluntary redundancy.”

The bank insisted that compulsory redundancies were always a last resort for the company.