14th Apr 2016 12:01
LONDON (Alliance News) - Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC is planning to cut about 600 jobs in the UK, according to trade union Unite on Thursday, with 32 of its Natwest branches to be shut down.
The Edinburgh-based FTSE 100 bank's cuts will lead to up to 400 job losses in the north, Midlands and east of the country, Unite said in a statement, with 200 to be cut in London.
"With job losses across the country and surviving branches on reduced hours, there's no doubt this latest round of cuts will hurt the bank's customers as well as our members," Unite Regional Officer Lyn Turner said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Natwest said it is doing everything it can to support staff as branches are closed, such as finding opportunities to redeploy them in other parts of the bank and ensuring that compulsory redundancies are kept to a minimum.
"Banking has changed significantly over the last few years and the way our customers want to interact with us is also changing. We have to continually adapt to meet our customers' needs and to ensure we remain viable and relevant both now and in the future," the Natwest spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
"We review our branch network regularly to make sure the services we provide are appropriate for each local community, based on our customers' usage and other ways to bank in the local area. Where we do have to make the difficult decision to close a branch we will always tell our staff and customers first," the spokesperson added.
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By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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