Barely a month passes when Unite is not given notice that a bank is closing more local branches because customers are now increasingly banking online. In July 2016, Move your Money reported…Read more…
Unite slams RBS moves
RBS shares experienced their steepest fall in the FTSE 100 late last week after the bank posted a hefty £2bn half-year loss, as it also announced that it would be abandoning its project to spin off…Read more…
‘No business sense’
Prudential employees, based in Reading, are being balloted for strike action over plans to outsource about 75 jobs dealing with annuities to India. Staff, members of Unite, will start voting…Read more…
Too far, too fast
Unite called on Lloyds Banking Group to give a no compulsory redundancy guarantee today (July 28) as the banking group announced a further 3,000 job losses and the closure of 200 branches by the end…Read more…
Drop pay plans call
Penny pinching bosses at Capita’s life and pensions division were being urged to drop a ‘derisory’ pay offer resulting in a real terms pay cut for 75 per cent staff after the firm posted half year…Read more…
‘Endless’ job cuts
The relentless Lloyds jobs cull continued yesterday (June 29) as the bank announced it would slash another 640 jobs, mostly in IT, group operations and wealth management. IT sites affected…Read more…
‘Enough is enough’
Blue chip finance companies, serviced by Capita, will be hit as nearly 1,000 life and pension workers stage a 24-hour strike today (June 16) in a dispute over ‘poverty pay’. More than 920 life…Read more…
#APD cut is lose, lose – for public services and for climate action
#WED2016 It is World Environment Day on Sunday 5 June. A good day for the Scottish Government to cancel plans to cut Air Passenger Duty.
UNISON Scotland today urged the Scottish Government to prioritise protecting public services by axing its plans to first cut APD by 50%, then eventually abolish the tax.
In our response to the Scottish Government consultation on APD, closing today, weRead more…
Overwhelming mandate
Over 920 life and pensions workers at Capita will be starting an indefinite overtime ban tomorrow (June 3) after voting by 90 per cent in support of industrial action in a dispute over a below…Read more…
‘As reckless as it is ruthless’
More than 800 HSBC workers will lose their jobs today (May 25) to cheap labour abroad, in a move which Unite said “was as reckless as it is ruthless.” The banking giant announced 840 IT jobs…Read more…
‘Reckless and short sighted’
HSBC will axe 840 jobs in IT departments in a ‘reckless’ drive to offshore jobs to India, China and Poland said Unite, today (May 16). The announcement of 840 job cuts is the first wave of IT…Read more…
‘Disastrous’ race to the bottom
Lloyds bank has today announced cuts to 625 jobs across several divisions. This includes the offshoring of IT workers to India in a dangerous ‘race to the bottom’ warned Unite. Cuts include…Read more…
Budget 2016 and pensions
Yesterday’s budget was originally going to be a big day for pensions with announcements on the review of pension taxation. However, this was scrapped or deferred, as the political consequences for…Read more…
Budget 2016 – All that you would expect from a Tory budget
It is a typical Tory budget. There is plenty of middle class welfare at the expense of workers and the disabled, together with further cuts to public spending. I take a look at the elements that most…Read more…
Broken ‘covenant’
At the height of the financial crisis, the Royal Bank of Scotland came under the auspices of taxpayers and received a bailout of £45bn. Since then, the bank’s implicit covenant with taxpayers…Read more…
Rise of the robo-bankers?
Investment advisers at the 73 per cent taxpayer-owned RBS bank are set to be replaced by so-called “robo advisers” to cut costs, which will entail the loss of 250 jobs. The bank, which…Read more…
Job losses and the Scottish Budget
In recent days there have been many political exchanges over job losses as a consequence of the cuts to council grant allocations in the Scottish Budget for 2016/17. Let’s look at the issue…Read more…
Budget Bill – Stage 3
The Scottish Budget is debated at Stage 3 in parliament tomorrow. While there is plenty of pain for all public services, it is local government that is bearing the brunt of austerity in…Read more…
Using procurement to tackle the tax dodgers
The tax dodging activities of companies has come under a lot of scrutiny, but we could do more to tackle this abuse in Scotland with existing powers. Companies who want to bid for taxpayer funded…Read more…
Scottish Budget: getting serious about tackling austerity
In tomorrow’s Scottish budget debate, if they are serious about opposing austerity, MSPs need to do more than badly administer George Osborne’s efforts to wreck our public services.
The Scottish…Read more…