UNIONS and staff yesterday criticised a decision to relocate 900 workers from Abbey National's Edinburgh offices to Glasgow as ''redundancy by another name''.
Amicus, the financial services union, claimed that only a fraction of the workers would accept relocation packages as they are mainly in relatively low-paid customer service positions. Union officials said the company was well aware that many members of its staff were unable to move.
The claims were backed by workers leaving a meeting held at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh who said they would not be able to transfer.
Abbey, which in 2001 took over the Scottish Provident offices, now being closed, insists it is doing everything possible to encourage workers to move, offering relocation packages or travelling expenses.
Hugh Scullion, Amicus regional officer, said: ''Asking 900 people to relocate from the east coast to Glasgow is nothing more than redundancy by another name. Abbey workers are having a gun put to their heads in pursuit of cost savings.
''Our members will wait with interest to see Luqman Arnold's (company chief executive officer) remuneration package over the next year, which will be paid for by people's livelihoods.''
Staff reacted angrily to the news yesterday, saying the announcement had been handled badly. Andrew and Nicola Verth, of Edinburgh, who have a one-year-old child and a mortgage, have both worked there since leaving school and will be looking for other jobs.
Mr Verth, 25, said: ''The company apologised for the way it was handled. Originally there was supposed to be an announcement before Christmas and they decided against it, but at least we would have known for sure.''
Marc Grant, 22, of Edinburgh, added: ''I suspected this since last September when they had managers through from Glasgow to the customer services department. I'm afraid I will be going for a change of career altogether.''
Mr Scullion added: ''I have seen documentation that confirmed the company was not expecting high numbers of workers to relocate.''
Elsewhere, Abbey will also close centres in Warrington and Derby, and a fourth office in Bradford will be affected under a plan to move 400 jobs to India. The company said that moving to fewer, larger centres would mean employees getting better training, better working environments, and more career opportunities, and that customers would receive a more consistent, higher quality of customer service.
Jim Wallace, the deputy first minister and enterprise minister, was briefed on the news while on a promotional visit to the US. An executive spokesman said: ''The deputy first minister is delighted that Abbey has strong commitment to Scotland by choosing Glasgow as one of its five UK customer operation centres.
''Although we recognise that not all staff might greet the news wholeheartedly, the executive is pleased that Abbey will be encouraging and supporting as many of its Edinburgh staff as possible to stay with the company.''
However, Jim Mather MSP, the SNP finance spokesman, backed claims by workers that Mr Wallace's comments were inappropriate. He said: ''I just worry that there is an aura of complacency here.''
He added: ''While I am sure that we should be grateful that these jobs are to remain in Scotland, we can also be sure that relocation will cause massive upheaval and be deeply unattractive to many Abbey staff.''
Mr Arnold said: ''This is not just about cutting costs, it is about delivering excellent customer service and giving our people better tools to do their jobs, better training, better working environments, and better career opportunities in our larger centres.''
The news came as Axa, the French insurance giant, said it was to cut up to 700 staff in the UK and switch jobs to India. A spokesman said the 200 workers in its Glasgow office could be affected, but no decision had yet been made.
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