By Carolyn Cohn
LONDON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Europe's largest lender HSBC will honour agreed 2016 pay rises for over 28,000junior British workers despite a global freeze on pay, tradeunion Unite said on Wednesday.
HSBC is imposing a hiring and pay freeze across the bankthis year, as it pushes through with plans for annual costsavings of up to $5 billion by 2017.
"HSBC will abide by pay deals made with recognised tradeunions, such as Unite," Unite said in a statement, adding unionofficials met HSBC Bank Plc chief executive Antonio Simoes onTuesday.
The clerical employees will get a payout from a potrepresenting an overall 2.2 percent rise, Unite said.
HSBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Editing by Rachel Armstrong and Mark Potter)