800 compulsory redundancies at Northern Rock

The nationalises bank, Northern Rock are to dispose of 1,300 members of staff 800 of which will be given compulsory redundancy, this is to reduce costs and improve the banks profitability.

Northern Rocks executive chairman Ron Sandler has said that the staff have been kept well informed, they know that its necessary for us to downsize the company, he sympathises with the staff and regrets he has to confirm job losses, he also said that the company is in the final phase now of the difficult position and that they are nearly completion.

The Unions are not happy about the job losses, Graham Goddard, deputy general secretary of Unite, said: “We are disappointed that Northern Rock has announced compulsory redundancies. We still believe that the job losses could have been absorbed through natural wastage and we are hopeful that Northern Rock will reduce the actual number of compulsory redundancies.”

Northern Rock had planned to lose a third of its staff which amounted to 2,000 job losses, the final figure of 1,300 losses was announced after consultation with Unite, the largest union, it will start talking individually to all the employees affected. Unite did not want compulsory redundancy, instead wanted job cuts to be achieved voluntarily or through natural staff turnover.

All job cuts are to happen this year, after the cuts it will bring Northern Rocks workforce to around 4,000. Northern Rock is still trying to pay back the Bank of England loan of £25 billion which it was given in September when the bank was on the verge of collapse.

Source: Timesonline

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