Wolverhampton jobs to go as RBS sheds 160 customer service posts
The Royal Bank of Scotland business customer relations team in Wolverhampton is to be shut down as part of plans to cut 160 staff at 54 locations across the UK.
It will see 13 jobs going in the city and another four at beleagured RBS offices in Birmingham.
The processing work carried out by the teams at the locations will be moved to India.
RBS staff were informed yesterday and the affected staff will be leaving between May and August.
The union Unite is challenging the taxpayer-backed bank over the impact the cost-cutting exercise will have on customer service and the justification for offshoring work.
Unite national officer Rob MacGregor said: "Experienced and skilled staff which service the business customer relations teams will today be devastated by news that their jobs could be lost.
"It is a further insult that Royal Bank of Scotland, as a taxpayer backed bank, will be sending 60 roles which are being done in the UK offshore to India.
"The roles impacted today are vital to the service business customers enjoy with local support teams and Unite has a real concern that such a loss will be detrimental to customer service."
A statement issued by RBS said: "This is clearly difficult news for staff affected by these changes. These changes will mean our relationship management teams can do things more effectively and efficiently and provide the best service to our customers.
"We will do everything we can to support staff, including seeking redeployment opportunities wherever possible and ensuring that compulsory redundancies are kept to a minimum."
The bank has a branch in Princess Street in Wolverhampton city centre and a commercial banking premises at Trinity Court, Broadlands on Wolverhampton Business Park, which opened in 2008 and is run jointly with NatWest. It employed 90 when it first opened.
It has shed 40,000 jobs since the £45 billion taxpayer bail out at the height of the financial crisis in 2008.
Unite had called for discussions before the latest cost-cutting proposals.
The bank announced in 2013 that 1,400 jobs would go over the following two years – nearly 200 of them in the West Midlands.
