With HSBC set to make Birmingham the home of its UK retail services, it has since begun laying off 840 of its IT staff.
The first phase of restructuring, which aims to cut 8,000 jobs in the UK by the end of 2017, will see Sheffield suffer the most, with 595 job losses expected. London and Birmingham will also see jobs cut.
The cutbacks come after the announcement last year that the bank is set to invest millions in a new facility at 2 Arena Central in Birmingham for 1,000 people by January 2019.
However, bank chief executive, Stuart Gulliver, said that the bulk of job losses in the UK would be on a voluntary basis.
Jobs are most likely to be off-shored to India.
Unit National Officer for Finance, Dominic Hook, commented on the announcement, calling it “reckless”.
He adds: “For almost a year staff have been left in the dark about their futures, only to be told that before being shown the door they’re expected to train someone in India or China who will do their job for less money. It’s a deeply cynical move by a bank which wants to be an ‘Employer of Choice’.
“Off-shoring IT jobs to so-called ‘low cost economies’ is extremely short sighted. As IT glitches across the banks continue to prove, it is ultimately the customers who will suffer the consequences.”
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