Lloyds jobs safe despite 4,000 national losses

The banking group has shed somewhere in the region of 4,000 jobs nationwide in the past 18 months, since the Government sold off its stake taken up during its 2008 bail-out of the group. Bosses said ‘a business overhaul and reduction of its branch network is essential to ensure it stays relevant amid a digital shift’.

But Ged Nichols, General Secretary of the Accord union that looks after the majority of Lloyds workers, said that in theory, Calderdale employees aren’t in danger.

“The bank made a long-term commitment to employment in Calderdale in 2009 in the form of an Employment Security Agreement,” he said, discussing the security of jobs both at the company’s Trinity Road HQ and the centre at Copley.

“It will be an ongoing issue as the bank continues to re-shape itself and its functions.

“The thing at Trinity Road especially is that there are such a range of functions now, some that are reducing, some that are increasing, which means while jobs are lost, those employees are being moved around.

“There is also the fact that because a lot of people have been at Trinity Road for a long time, voluntary redundancy packages are often more attractive.”

A Lloyds Banking Group spokesperson said: “The Group is making its largest ever investment in our colleagues to reskill them so that it is able to meet customers’ changing needs.

“As we have demonstrated in the past, we will always look to redeploy people wherever possible to retain experience and knowledge within the Group. That hasn’t changed.”