Royal Bank of Scotland confirms 700 jobs to be axed

ROYAL Bank of Scotland today confirmed that 700 jobs are to be axed across the UK in two of its departments.

The cuts - in the technology services and group property departments - are part of the wider 4500 UK job losses announced earlier this year in the Group Manufacturing division.

Edinburgh and London are both expected to be hit hard by the losses as both are major employment centres for the two divisions.

However, individual staff have not been told whether their roles will be affected by today's announcement.

A spokeswoman for RBS said: "On April 7 we announced that we would be cutting 4500 roles in the UK over the next two years in our manufacturing division and that we would work through a process with staff at all affected locations as we determined the local impact of this. Today's consultations with staff are an ongoing part of the process.

"This affects the Technology Services and Group Property sections of the division in which up to 700 roles will go at locations across the UK. It is our firm intention to ensure that the number of compulsory redundancies is kept to an absolute minimum."

The two departments are the first within Group Manufacturing to be told how the cuts will affect them.

Rob MacGregor, national officer for the Unite trade union, said: "Since the announcement by the bank in April that 4500 people will be made redundant, staff across the company have been living with uncertainty about their future. This confirmation for employees in the IT and property divisions that they will be the ones hit is devastating.

"Unite has told the bank it is opposed to compulsory job losses and will be pressing them through ongoing engagement to offer continued employment within RBS for those affected."