London - Britain's Lloyds Banking Group is to cut around 5,000 jobs next year as part of plans to reduce costs, media reports said Tuesday. The bank is expected to confirm the cuts in the United Kingdom later on Tuesday, reports quoted unnamed sources as saying.
Earlier this year, around 7,000 jobs were cut after the completion of Lloyds' merger with ailing bank HBOS, leaving Lloyds with around 130,000 employees.
Unite is calling for the immediate suspension of all job losses in order for the company to introduce an agreement with the union of no compulsory redundancies in any section of Lloyds," Rob MacGregor of the Unite trade union said
Unite said the fresh job cuts would hit workers in Lloyds' insurance, group operations and retail divisions, describing it as a "bitter blow" for staff, just days after 5,400 jobs were cut in two other banks - RBS and HSBC.
This country's financial sector should be looking towards the future, rather than continuing to slash jobs without proper consideration of how to rebuild the public's confidence in our tarnished banking sector," MacGregor said.
