The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
Financial Services Financial And Insurance Activities Financial Service Activities, Except Insurance And Pension Funding 64.1 - Monetary intermediation
550 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
12 August 2020
Employment effect (start)
Foreseen end date
Description
NatWest Group, the British banking and insurance holding company, has announced that it will cut 550 jobs in its Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest branches across Great Britain and in its ‘premier banking’ arm. The cuts will affect branch manager, premier banking manager and personal banker roles. A statement by the bank said the job cuts would be made through voluntary redundancies.
The group said the restructuring was motivated by the “rising customer demand” for online banking since March, when banks introduced shorter opening hours or closed temporarily due to the coronavirus crisis.
An officer of the trade union Unite warned that the banks should not introduce austerity measures on their employees who had “risen to the challenge that the pandemic created.”
The NatWest Group includes NatWest (National Westminster) Bank, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank. Earlier in 2020 the Royal Bank of Scotland Group was re-named NatWest Group.
Eurofound (2020), NatWest Group, Internal restructuring in United Kingdom, factsheet number 101919, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/101919.
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.
The retail banking sector is fertile ground for studying the impacts of digitalisation on work and employment. Financial services are increasingly provided online, without the intermediary of customer-facing institutions.
European labour markets have recovered strongly from COVID-19. By the end of 2021, little more than 18 months after the start of the pandemic, employment rates in the EU were almost at pre-crisis levels.
