Union criticises HSBC job losses

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/scotland/7327386.stm

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Banking giant HSBC is closing its call centre in Livingston with the loss of 167 jobs.

It hopes the cuts at the West Lothian site will be absorbed within its Scottish workforce but the closure has been condemned by the Unite union.

The bank said the building's lease was up for renewal next year and it was no longer cost effective to keep it open.

It said most of the work would be redistributed around the UK but some of it would go to India.

HSBC expected many of the staff to be redeployed among its 3,500 Scottish workforce but was not ruling out compulsory redundancies.

A spokesman for the bank said the closure had nothing to do with the current turmoil in the financial markets and the company still intended to recruit more staff in Scotland this year.

But the Unite union said the closure was unacceptable and would not achieve the cost savings claimed by the bank.

The union's deputy general secretary, Graham Goddard, said: "They are walking away from Livingston without any justification.

"We are calling on the bank to accept their responsibility to have meaningful consultation and negotiations with the union."