STAFF in Guernsey face an anxious wait after RBSI announced plans to cut 90 jobs across its offshore businesses.
RBS Group last week announced record losses of £24bn for 2008 and 20,000 jobs were understood to be at risk as a result.
It is not yet known how the offshore cuts will affect Guernsey’s 187 RBSI workers.
Staff were given the news by bosses yesterday and further details will be given in a meeting today.
It is understood staff accept there will be job losses locally but do not yet know which departments will be affected.
Chief executive Ian Henderson said: ‘We will support our staff through this difficult time.’
He said the bank hoped to achieve the cuts through normal turnover and voluntary redundancies.
‘In light of more challenging market conditions, it is essential to create a structure that reflects changing customer requirements as well as the need to achieve cost efficiencies,’ he said.
A local financial expert said far fewer redundancies were planned than the industry had expected.
‘You could see this as a positive – that the number is not bigger given that it’s hard to imagine a bank in worse condition.’
He expected local job losses to be in single figures and mostly in administration.
‘You would think, logically, that the brunt would be felt from within Jersey and the Isle of Man, which have the most staff,’ he said.
‘One would expect support functions, roles that are more a cost than a revenue generator, to be the jobs lost.’
RBSI has more than 1,800 workers in the four targeted jurisdictions, with 880 in Jersey, 179 in Gibraltar and 584 in the Isle of Man.
Unite national officer Rob MacGregor said: ‘Unite will not accept a situation where staff are sacrificing their jobs to compensate for failures at the top.’
The job-cut news was no surprise to local business leaders. ‘It’s regrettable but understandable,’ said Chamber of Commerce president Paul Luxon, who declined to comment further until the full impact on the island was known.
Association of Guernsey Banks chairman Ken Gibbs said: ‘It’s not surprising given the amount the bank lost last year.’
Guernsey International Business Association deputy chairman Paul Meader said: ‘It is encouraging to see that RBSI hopes to reduce their head count through natural wastage.’
But he added: ‘Now, more than ever, we need to ensure our finance sector is ahead of other jurisdictions.
‘That will encourage business to come here so that those who are made redundant have options for further employment.’
Article posted on 5th March, 2009 - 2.30pm
23 Article Comments
Last year there was talk of 1300 jobs available and this was used as an argument to allow more people into the island. At this rate there will be 1300 people available!!
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Still no words of wisdom from the upbeat brigade!
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“A local financial expert said far fewer redundancies were planned than the industry had expected.”
He would wouldn’t he? Though financial experts plans are just not attracting much collateral of late are they?
That was a completely empty line. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Safe jobs are much more scarce than most people think.
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Paul – maybe they don’t know yet – their heads are still in the proverbial sand!
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Am I the only one getting really concerned now! I work in the finance industry and know several other finance houses who have already agreed on numbers of redundancies but are yet to make them public, they total over 200. In addition there are many who are giving NO salary increases and NO bonuses. Add NRG into the mix as well as the obvious knock on effect to service industries and a 20% reduction in Guernseys income tax take is a real possibility. So what are the States doing to protect our future— No reduction in States payroll, wish list of projects with borrowing the only option adding still further to the burden on the relative small number of ‘positive’ tax payers. When are they going to grasp the nettle and reduce spending. As in the UK states employees should start to expect a big shake up on numbers, pay, pensions we simply cannot afford all of you!
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Its a terrible state of affairs.
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Attn recruiters!!
On your mark…..set…..
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Paul. Same here, I also work in finance. We have had no pay rises, bonuses, promotions. A few people have unfortunately lost their jobs here, not anywhere near this number though. But atleast we still have jobs. For now.
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Perhaps RBS ahould have the following as their new company slogan:
“Radix malorum est cupiditas”.
Or translated from the Latin “Greed is the root of all evil”.
Whilst I feel sorry for those employees, who are losing their jobs whilst the likes of Sir Fred the Shred cashes in his £700k annual pension as his reward for paying his substantial part in bringing this financial institution and the British economy to its knees, they were part of that system of avarice.
A system which does not care about repossessing your home if you do not keep up mortgage repayments, and which only cares about how big their fat bonuses are at the end of the day. A system which does not care about the consequences that has on families, etc. and now a system which says in the words of its Chief Executive it will “support [its] staff through this difficult time”. Funny way of showing your support. I pity those employees and their families who are now faced with “voluntary” redundancy and the effect it will have on them.
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paul: “I work in the finance industry……..As in the UK states employees should start to expect a big shake up on numbers, pay, pensions we simply cannot afford all of you!”
No, and the infrastructure of the island simply can’t afford all of you.
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Jean Pierre……….now we get down to it! If I understand your comment correctly you would like the ‘finance people’ to move away from the island irrespective of thier place of birth. What would be left? Be careful what you wish for!
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MmeLaGuillotine
I believe it was Bernard Shaw who said that bankers reminded him of the guillotine!!!!
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Although I feel for those who may loose their jobs but isnt the reason most people go into finance is to get bonuses, healthcare, private non-contributory pension scheme, high wages, relocation costs, housing paid for, mortgage subsidy, childcare subsidy, travel allowance and yet they moan about civil servants who get none of the above, although granted a good pension scheme.
If you think civil servants have an easy life then why dont you apply for a job there?? No, because let me guess it doesnt pay as much as the jobs you are in now.
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There is a silver cloud to all of this. It’s called the ‘mean reversion’. People wil lgo back to their average (realistic) worth, capabilities and lowered expectations. Socially not a bad thing.
Earn £15k a year ann beleive it’s your ‘right’ to take your kids to Disneyland? Tough: go save some more.
18 years old, fallen out with mum and want the State to create new houses for you? Tough, go patch it up with your parent(s)
A fireman who uses the 400k average hosue price as a justification for higher salary? Tough, you are a fireman; there are 40 people that would be grateful for your job.
It’s time for all of us to get a grip. And a part of me welcomes the reality check.
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Tantar: I am actually slightly offended by your post. I did not choose to work in the finance industry. And i certainly do not have a high wage and have not had a bonus this year, and last years was hardly much. Also Yes I have a pension scheme, but i have to contribute towards it. I have no housing/mortgage subsidy nor childcare subsidy. And if i go away for a Business trip, yes the costs are covered as it is for Business.
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GsyGal – you did not choose to work in the Finance Industry? Did someone apply for you, do the interview, etc? It was your choice.
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I see that a few of the finance work force feel that now their jobs are not looking as secure as they once were and were quite happy while they were bringing home their nice bonus every year, They now feel the need to start moaning about the States work force and think we are no longer needed! Well let me just say that while you were happy bringing in lots of wages when times were good, some of us who work for the island were not getting a nice bonus and large wages! Just because things are not looking so rosy for you now don’t think the answer is to start cutting back on services because your situation is looking precarious. There are many who work for the States who could have jumped ship to earn a much higher wage in the privet sector but remained to keep this Island going. (Their reward is “NOW WE ARE NOT GETTING LOTS OF CASH LETS HAVE A DIG AT THE STATES AND MAKE EVERYONE ELSE SUFFER!) My answer Tuff!!! You could have joined the States work force instead of earning lots of cash but you didn’t, What goes around comes around!!!
P.S. I don’t feel bitter about the wages some of the banking work force were earning and I don’t want anyone to lose their jobs but I also don’t want to lose mine!
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I think there is a definite case of misunderstanding (and in some cases blind ignorance) towards finance sector workers here.
In the jobs that are performed in the finance sector locally, the salary earnt in most repects is comparable to other areas of the south of england, yes you could argue that there is a lower quality of employee in the same role due to resticted competition in guernsey but the simple fact of salary comparison is as above.
In 6 years when I worked in the finance sector I never received one bonus, not a single penny, my apprasials were always glowing but there was always some excuse, “challenging environment”, “lower profit margin”, but it rankles when “anon director a” appears in the car park lording his brand new M5 around which he paid for with his bonus which alone was double 60% of his staff’s annual salary.
Dont tar all Finance workers with the same brush, they are not all on massive salaries and benefits packages and in fact most civil sector workers I know are actually on greater salaries than what their couterparts in the private sector would earn.
As for people who beleive that “you are not forced to work in the finance industry”, well maybe you are not dragged kicking and screaming to work every day, but the simple fact of the matter is that the cost of living over here is so ludicrous that many people would never get on the housing ladder if they didnt work in finance, so in effect you could argue that most people ARE forced to work in finance, frankly thats not a difficult concept to understand but a few of you seem to be in “bash the finance industry” mode and seem to be relishing the fact that some of these hard working honest people will be losing their jobs.
I understand that its that sector which has skewed Guernsey’s cost of living in the first place, but most of the people who have had serious benefit out of it have now retired, or are in such senior positions they would be immune to most of the effects of the downturn.
Ironically its these very same people that have led us to where we are now.
But yet again its Joe Bloggs in administration who is going to get the shaft.
I guess what I’m trying to say is dont vilify finance workers for feeling hard done by, because the fact of the matter is that most of them have a genuine right to feel that way.
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MmeLaGuillotine: Apologises, i worded that wrongly. I meant although yes i did apply for my job. It was certainly not my first choice. Finance jobs are just so easy to come across and get employed for, many more people will follow my route of just taking the first job offered to them.
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I work in recruitment in London …..in the words of Mr Bob Dylan, the times they are a changing.
I am having difficulty placing highly qualified and highly experienced people at 20% salary drops.
I am seriously concerned about the future of Guernsey as a financial area, lots of my familly work there in the industry.
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Spot on Tom! They don’t want us to share in the good times, just the bad.
One thing though, is the ‘privet sector’ another name for hedge funds? ;-)
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>>NO bonuses.<<
Bonuses are not part of the salary. If people have lived off their bonuses, factoring that in as their gross earnings, then that’s just silly
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As a former mortgage adviser – now working in the civil service – I see both sides of the equation and I certainly do not believe that “finance” employees deserve to be vilified – and civil servants have nothing to be smug about! Heres a novel idea – lets all rally together and get some community spirit back-ride out the storm and learn from the mistakes – not chuck stones at each other when one side are doing better then the other? A crazy notion i know.
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