According to the union Unite, Barclays will eliminate more than 450 positions, or about 1% of its UK workforce.
The union emphasised that the reductions occur despite the banking behemoth posting a profit of more than £1 billion during the second quarter of the year. Because the cost for a client to borrow often increased before the cost of lending, the top banks in the UK benefited from rising interest rates in the first half of the year.
“How can a profitable financial institution like Barclays slash over 450 staff members amid a cost-of-living crisis,” questioned Dominic Hook, a national officer for Unite. This bank is producing billions of pounds in profits, not a suffering corporation.
“Hundreds of families will lose their livelihoods and experience financial hardship as a result of a management decision that is both unnecessary and unjustified” if these plans for compulsory redundancy are put into action.
The union claimed it is attempting to stop forced job losses and encourage any redundancies to be voluntary. Additionally, it stated that it was trying “to ensure staff are given re-training and redeployment opportunities”.
According to The Standard, the positions will be in head office positions at the UK VP level and lower. Canary Wharf is where Barclays’ main offices are.
“We continue to review and adapt our operations based on the ways customers are choosing to interact with us,” a Barclays representative said. These adjustments will increase team communication, allowing us to keep enhancing our services to customers and clients. Working collaboratively with Unite, we are dedicated to assisting workers during this shift.
“The employees losing their jobs are not the highly compensated wealthy City bankers, but rather those making modest salaries at Barclays,” said Hook. These workers contributed to provide Barclays clients with the best customer service possible throughout the Covid epidemic. These employees merit better.
Today’s gain in Barclays stock brings it to 152p. For the year so far, they are down 7%.
