Lloyds wields the axe on another 700 jobs

The trade union Accord has announced this morning that 700 jobs are set to go at Lloyds Banking Group’s offices in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

Since its merger with HBOS last autumn, Lloyds has axed thousands of jobs due to overlap within the megabank.

Lloyds said it planned to move approximately 570 life, pensions and investments administration jobs from the Aylesbury offices.

Furthermore, Equitable Life has given notice that its contract with Lloyds for administrative services will come to an end in March 2011.

The work is set to be transferred to HCL, the Indian logistics and IT company. However, HCL said it would only be able to retain 100 staff out of the 340.

The two combined decisions means a loss of 700 jobs in Aylesbury, with the positions to be eliminated by the end of 2011.

Ged Nichols, Accord’s general secretary, described today’s announcement as a “body-blow”.

“We will have a team on site in Aylesbury with members this week to gauge their reactions and determine what other steps may need to be taken“, said Mr Nichols.

“Accord will be providing full support to every member affected by today’s announcement.”

In the meantime, Chris Wiscarson, chief executive of Equitable Life, described their decision as regrettable and said: “This is one of the most important decisions in the society’s history.”

The news comes just two weeks after the banking giant, which is 43% owned by the taxpayer, announced it would axe 5,000 jobs by the end of 2010 - these were in addition to the 10,000 already axed this year.

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