The jobs of hundreds of IT staff and contractors at
Barclays bank are at risk under plans by the bank to restructure
its main IT division, union Amicus Unifi has warned.
The bank has announced plans internally to integrate its IT
division with its UK banking business. Barclay's IT division was
run as a separate unit, under a decentralised business model.
There are around 8,500 IT and business staff in the IT division.
Barclays outsourced its application development section to
Accenture in June in a deal valued at more than £400m.
Amicus Unifi union has warned that the jobs of hundreds of IT
staff and contractors at Barclays bank could be at risk under the
plans. A spokesman for Barclays said the changes to the IT division
were part of a company wide review of its operations announced last
year.
He said that no decision had been taken about job losses and it
was consulting IT staff. Keith Brookes, national secretary at
Amicus Unifi said it was concerned that the consultation process
over the business restructuring was being rushed. "I’m not sure
that the bank has reflected deeply on their plans," he said.
In recent years Barclays bank has outsourced more of its IT than
other banks, to the UK and offshore.
In August Barclays Bank announced that it will acquire a 50%
stake from in Mumbai, India-based Intelenet Global Services, the
business process outsourcing (BPO) arm of HDFC.