Lloyds Bank cutting or moving 5,000 more jobs

[November 10, 2009]  LONDON (AP) -- Britain's Lloyds Banking Group PLC said Tuesday that it plans to cut about 4,300 jobs and transfer 680 more in a series of reorganizational moves in its group operations, insurance and retail division.

The bank, which was bailed out by the government, had already announced a total reduction of 6,400 jobs in the first half of the year. It employed about 118,000 people at the end of June.

It said the latest round of job-cutting would affect 5,000 employees, including about 2,400 contractors, temporary staff and offshore personnel.

Lloyds said 680 of the affected positions will be redeployed to one of seven sites in its retail division.

"This Lloyds Banking Group announcement of 5,000 job losses demonstrates the depth of corporate arrogance within this taxpayer-supported bank," said Rob MacGregor, a union national officer.

He called for an agreement with the company that there would be no compulsory layoffs.

"We will continue to work closely with our colleagues affected by today's announcement to help them through these changes over the coming year," said Mark Fisher, group integration director at Lloyds.

The government,which holds a 43.4 percent stake in Lloyds Banking Group, announced last week that it would inject another 5.7 billion pounds to take up its share in Lloyds' planned record-breaking 13.5 billion pound rights issue.

Lloyds announced at the same time that it would dispose of more than 600 branches, or 4.6 percent of its total, over the next four years to appease EU competition regulators.

Lloyds Banking Group was formed in January when Lloyds TSB took rescued Halifax/Bank of Scotland.

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.