HR roles will not be part of the latest jobs cull at the Royal Bank of Scotland, Personnel Today can reveal.
More than 9,000 redundancies will be made worldwide, with half coming from the UK’s group manufacturing division, which contains various back-office functions including finance, IT and procurement.
But a spokeswoman from the company told Personnel Today this morning that HR jobs would not be part of the cull.
“As HR is not part of group manufacturing, unlike IT or finance, it is not affected by this announcement,” she said.
She added that the banking giant would use a redeployment programme to move 650 people into new roles. The impact of the redundancies would also be reduced through natural turnover and less use of temporary workers.
Unions have criticised the move, labelling it a “devastating blow” for staff.
Rob MacGregor, Unite’s national officer, said: “It is appalling that thousands of people, who form the backbone of the RBS operations, are to be made redundant.”
In February, the bank announced 2,300 job cuts, about 2% of its UK workforce.
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The latest cuts are part of a policy to save the bank – now 70% owned by the government – £2.5bn over the next three years.
Last week shareholders at the bank voted in favour of former chief executive Fred Goodwin giving up his £703,000-a-year pension pot. The vote is non-binding.