Ethics in the digital workplace
Digitisation and automation technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), can affect working conditions in a variety of ways and their use in the workplace raises a host of new ethical concerns.
Lloyds Banking Group has announced that from October 2020 it will resume a restructuring programme leading to 780 job cuts across its branch network in the UK. The restructuring was first announced in February 2020 and subsequently delayed, when the Bank of England told banks to keep branches open during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A spokesperson for the company said that the closures were a response to customers 'using branches less often'.
A representative of the trade union Unite said the decision demonstrated that Lloyds was 'walking away from community banking'. More recently, the trade union Accord said it was satisfied with the extension of the notice period for the employees affected by the redundancies.
Lloyds Banking Group is the UK’s largest domestic lender, trading under the brand names Lloyds Bank, Halifax and the Bank of Scotland. In the past two years the group has significantly reduced its network of branches.
Update 9/9/2020: Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) has confirmed that it will cut 865 jobs across the UK by November 2020 at the earliest. The company will also create 226 new roles, leading to a net loss of 639 jobs. The majority the redundancies affect back-office jobs, in the bank’s insurance and wealth management divisions. A representative of the Unite trade union said it was 'totally unacceptable' that LBG puts pressure on its remaining employees by regularly cutting hundreds of jobs.
Update 4/11/2020: The Lloyds Banking Group has announced plans to cut further 1,070 jobs across the UK from January 2021. The cuts will affect employees in the bank’s retail arm, the insurance and wealth offices, as well as in IT and digital changes. The bank said it would create 340 new roles. In the current restructuring the total number of announced job losses is at 1,935, with 566 new jobs being created.
Eurofound (2020), Lloyds Banking Group, Internal restructuring in United Kingdom, factsheet number 101269, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/101269.