Barclays planning 900 layoffs in Britain to cut costs, union claims
Barclays is planning to cut 900 roles in Britain by the new year, according to employee union Unite, as the bank seeks to reduce costs.
A Unite spokesperson told Morning Wire that Barclays informed workers of the potential layoffs at 1pm on Tuesday.
They added that these layoffs come on top of the 450 cuts that were revealed in September.
Barclays announced in October that it was looking to cut costs following weak results in the third quarter.
The Financial Times reported this morning that Barclays was considering dropping thousands of its investment bank’s clients in a wider effort to increase profits and reduce costs by £1bn.
The group’s chief executive, C.S. Venkatakrishnan, is due to provide an investor update in February which will reveal more details about this strategy.
The plans could involve as many as 2,000 layoffs, Reuters reported last week.
A Barclays spokesperson told Morning Wire that the company was “taking a number of actions to simplify and reshape the business, improve service, and deliver higher returns”.
“This includes changes to our headcount as management layers are reduced and the group improves its technology and automation capabilities,” they added. “We are committed to supporting impacted colleagues through these changes.”
Unite has urged Barclays to avoid all compulsory redundancies and redeploy staff in the group’s impacted businesses.
The union’s general secretary, Sharon Graham, said: “Barclays is disgracefully cutting jobs to further boost its massive profits. This is a mega-rich bank that is already on course to make eye watering profits this year.”