1,200 more jobs to go at Lloyds

The latest cull means that the "Bank of Britain" - created following Lloyds' £12million takeover of HBoS - has slashed a total of 8,200 jobs so far in 2009.

It was the bank's eighth such announcement this year, prompting union leaders to label the move Groundhog Day, after the hit film in which a TV weatherman keeps reliving the same dreadful day over and over.

Unite's national officer Rob MacGregor claimed Lloyds staff were living in fear of where the axe would fall next.

He said: "We appear to have Groundhog Day where each week thousands of staff are told they are to lose their jobs.

"It is disgraceful, particularly when the bank has been bailed out with £17billion of taxpayers' money." The latest job cuts, which are part of plans to slash costs by £1.5bn, will hit IT workers and staff in the group's Clerical Medical and Scottish Widows insurance arms.

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Offices in Leeds, Halifax, Bristol and Edinburgh will suffer the brunt of the cuts.

MacGregor said Lloyds couldn't justify the job losses while continuing to employ large numbers of workers in India.

Lloyds, which says it has created 1,250 jobs since January, stressed it hoped to achieve these latest cuts voluntarily.

We Say: It is hard not to believe that Lloyds' decision to drip-feed the bleak news on jobs is a feeble attempt to avoid the negative publicity an announcement of, say, 20,000 job losses, would bring.

If that is the case, it isn't working. They are getting a stream of negative coverage and demoralising staff, too.

If they really still don't yet know how many jobs will go and where, it proves that Lloyds "rescue" of HBoS was a rush job - and also that those at the top failed to do their homework. link....