by Our News Desk

LLOYDS Bank announced yesterday that it would axe hundreds of jobs as part of ongoing restructuring, despite senior executives recently receiving £2 million in bonuses.

The partially public bank said that the 635 disappearing jobs would hit retail, commercial banking, consumer finance, human resources and group operations, but that 65 new roles would be created.

“While those at the top are rewarded for the group’s rising share price, once again staff who have worked for that success receive all the pain and little of the profits,” said banking union Unite national officer Rob MacGregor.

He demanded that all affected workers should be offered meaningful and realistic job alternatives within the Lloyds group.

In a statement, Lloyds said it was committed to working through the changes with employees. All affected staff were briefed by their line managers yesterday.

“The group’s recognised unions were consulted prior to this announcement and will continue to be consulted,” the statement said.

“Policy is always to use natural turnover and to redeploy people wherever possible to retain their expertise and knowledge within the group.

“Where it is necessary for employees to leave the company, it will look to achieve this by offering voluntary redundancy. Compulsory redundancies will always be a last resort.”

But Mr MacGregor responded: “Lloyds senior management claim that the bank’s recovery ‘helps Britain prosper’ and that the interests of staff, customers and shareholders are all aligned.

“Today’s announcement that they intend to axe more jobs after senior executives received £2 million in bonuses exposes this claim as a myth.”