Stop playing games with staff, Barclays told

Workers' union fears for job security of the bank's back-office workers in Poole

Future of Barclays' back-office staff is unclear

Barclays has been accused by workers' union Unite of “playing games” with staff after the announcement that it will remain at its current site instead of moving its Poole processing plant to a new facility.

The move was intended to increase efficiency, but after analysing costs of relocation, the bank decided the back-office staff will stay at its current site.

At the time of the original announcement last May, Barclays said it would close its current facility in Poole to go to a new site to increase efficiency. It was understood that the move would cause the loss of around 1,100 jobs.

Part of the original plan was to move the remaining 900 workers to a new facility around the Dorset area by 2010.

The bank says it is committed to the area and will be looking to improve the current site. "We continue to expect to have approximately 800-900 staff on site in 2010,” Barclays said in a statement.

Now that Barclays has told staff that the relocation will not take place, Unite said the bank has rejected calls for written guarantees that jobs will be kept.

"Unite wants Barclays to stop playing games with their workforce and make their plans for the 900 staff in Poole clear,” said Unite’s deputy general secretary Graham Goddard.

“We can not have a situation where the staff has no faith that they will have a job in two years’ time," he said.

The news follow Barclays' decision to offshore many sections of its IT over the next three years.

The decision, communicated to staff in January, could affect up to 1,800 UK jobs. Allegedly, some positions will be offered to UK-based staff, but the conditions under which this will happen are unclear.

"Some roles will move offshore, and colleagues will have the opportunity to apply for these roles and relocate. Some roles will fall away," said Barclays in a statement.

"As far as possible, we will manage the reduction in headcount by reducing the number of contractors and temps we employ.

"Where permanent staff are affected, working with Unite, we have put in place significant support to help them find another role, either in Barclays, or externally."