The £46bn agreed merger between Barclays and Dutch rival ABN Amro will result in 12,800 jobs cuts or 6% of the combined workforce, the banks said.
Barclays’s takeover will create a company with about 217,000 employees, and will also see a move of 10,800 positions to “low-cost locations” as it looks at making annual cost savings of $4.8bn by 2010.
If the merger goes through as planned the new bank’s headquarters will be in Amsterdam and the combined group will have a UK corporate governance structure with a unitary board.
Current ABN chairman, Arthur Martinez, will chair the board, while group chief executive of Barclays John Varley will take up the post of chief executive. The new board will initially consist of 10 members from Barclays and nine from ABN Amro.
Keith Brookes, national official at union Amicus, said: “Amicus has been in constant contact with senior management at Barclays regarding developments on the merger talks with ABN Amro.
“While we understand that there will be some 23,000 jobs lost over three years, we have been informed that many of these will lost through natural staff turnover.
“Amicus is seeking assurances from Barclays that it will work with us to avoid any compulsory redundancies. We have every confidence that this process of change can be managed through our existing job security agreements.”
The proposed merger is expected to complete during the fourth quarter of 2007.
