Barclays is set to cut its IT workforce through a
mixture of redundancies and laying off "under- performing"
staff.
Barclays said the planned job cuts would affect those staff who
do not possess the skills to "best serve our customers going
forward" although it would not say which skills it was looking to
jettison.
The bank applies a ranking system to the performance of all
senior staff by grading individuals between A and D. It is believed
those IT workers who received the lowest grade in the bank's last
performance review are most at risk.
Howard Hymanson, head of employment law at Tarlo Lyons, said
dismissing employees for underperformance was made more
straightforward for Barclays by the redundancy context.
Where redundancies are being made, employers are not required to
monitor the performance of a struggling employee prior to laying
them off, whereas ordinarily more opportunity to improve individual
performance would need to be offered, he said.
A spokesman for trade union Amicus said, "We are consulting with
Barclays as part of their review of IT services. Barclays' IT audit
has identified skills shortfalls and we are working with them to
ensure that retraining and upskilling opportunities are
pursued."