Unions have urged financial institutions not to make knee-jerk job cuts as mid-year results show a loss in trading.
On Friday the RBS banking group posted massive six-month losses of £691m, thought to be due to the economic crisis affecting UK businesses. Its underlying operating profit for the latest six month period was down 3% to £5.1bn, the report showed.
However, Graham Goddard, Unite deputy general secretary, urged banks to think long-term about staffing and how people will contribute to their companies successes.
The news came as senior employment figures told Personnel Today not to make sweeping redundancies under the guise of the recession.
Goddard said: “RBS and other financial institutions are urged to not make knee-jerk reactions in terms of jobs and to maintain staffing levels that have delivered such economic successes in the past 10 years.”
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He added: “For a financial institution as successful as RBS to record such half year losses demonstrates the scale of the current financial crisis affecting banks and building societies.”
“However the underlying operating profit of RBS and profits posted by other financial institutions, although reduced, show that British banks remain profitable and successful in the face of difficult trading conditions.”
