The future of TSB as an independent bank now looks in jeopardy.
Today, it’s announced that it will be closing 164 branches between January and June 2021 and making 900 branch staff redundant. There will also be a number of role changes and the branch network will be reorganised to reflect the cull of jobs. We will cover those changes in a separate Newsletter.
We’ve been saying since the IT meltdown, which cost the bank a staggering £400 million, that TSB would close branches, cut jobs and move to a digital platform ready to be sold to the highest bidder. What we didn’t realise is that TSB would use a global pandemic to justify a strategy it already had in place. Sabadell was boasting that it expected TSB to deliver on its business plan and to ‘intensify and accelerate cost-cutting’. That’s exactly what it’s doing.
To throw hardworking staff on the scrap heap in the middle of a pandemic and against the backdrop of the worst financial crisis in a generation is nothing short of scandalous.
When she launched the ‘Do What Matters Plan’, Debbie Crosbie, TSB’s Chief Executive said: “It is critical for all of us to think beyond today and consider what TSB contributes to the communities we operate in and the difference we can make”. She also said: “TSB needs to deliver more than just commercial performance”. If those words are to mean anything, then Mrs Crosbie needs to reconsider what she’s doing to the TSB branch network. Creating a wasteland and calling it progress is only going to lead to the slow death of TSB and many of the communities it serves.
Equally, there comes a time when you’ve got to stop cutting costs and start growing the business. Closing branches and making people redundant is easy: Mrs Crosbie needs to show she’s more than a one-trick pony. A few weeks ago, she was criticising the bank’s customer service performance, which she is ultimately responsible for, saying that it was holding the business back.
Redundancy Terms
The first stage of calculating entitlement involves working out an individual’s weekly earnings upon which Redundancy Payments would be based. The total pay figure is then divided by 52 to arrive at a weekly figure.
The formula for calculating Pre 2012 Severance Pay is 2 weeks’ pay for every year of service under age 22, 4 weeks’ pay for ever year of service aged 22 to 40, 6 weeks’ pay for every year of service aged 41 and over. Only the last 20 years service is used in the calculation and payment is capped at a maximum of 104 weeks’ pay.
The first £30,000 of any Redundancy Payment is paid tax-free. Severance payments apply to all staff. Payment is based on each individual’s length of service in the Bank, up to the date of termination rounded up to whole years based on age at last birthday. For example, service of 12 years 1 month at date of leaving would be rounded up to 13 years.
For those staff who joined the bank after 1st January 2012 the severance terms are calculated differently. For each year of service under the age of 22 staff get 1.375 weeks’ pay per year of service. Between the ages of 22-40 staff get 2.75 weeks’ pay per year of service and 4.125 weeks’ pay per year of service over the age of 41. Service is rounded down to the nearest whole number of years and takes account of age as at the last birthday
The total value of any payment under these terms is capped at £165,000
Members with any questions on the latest round of job losses should contact the Union’s Advice Team on 01234 716029 (Option 1).