Lloyds gives staff at risk stay of execution during coronavirus pandemic lockdown
Lloyds Banking Group has given staff in redundancy an extra month of breathing space during the coronavirus lockdown.
The bank said last month it would pause plans to cut 780 jobs during the crisis.
However, those already going through the redundancy process faced an unknown fate, with one source telling Morning Wire they feared Lloyds was “knowingly pushing people into redundancy”.
Lloyds is understood to have decided not to force out any staff during April, with plans to review its policy on exits on a month-by-month basis.
Lloyds said today it has extended the moratorium on forced redundancies until the end of May.
A Lloyds Banking Group spokesperson said: “We have made a number of commitments to our colleagues to address their concerns during the current crisis, including continuing to pay them in full regardless of their working circumstances, and pausing reorganisation activity until the end of May.
“We will continue to review these and other commitments to our colleagues for as long as the crisis continues.”
Rival UK banking giant Barclays told staff earlier this month it was halting new redundancies while the coronavirus crisis is ongoing. It also said it would support staff already going through redundancy processes.
Barclays said it will furlough staff facing redundancy.
Barclays, rather than the state, would pay 80 per cent of those staff’s wages.
Building society Nationwide said earlier this month it would not make any compulsory redundancies during 2020.
HSBC kicks off a week of first quarter results announcements tomorrow.
Barclays, Lloyds and the Royal Bank of Scotland will report their figures on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday respectively.
Analysts will be watching to see if the UK banks follow US giants such as JP Morgan and Citi in booking large provisions for credit losses as loans sour because of the crisis.