Lloyds cuts more jobs

State-controlled bank Lloyds Banking is to cut a further 585 jobs and close all Black Horse call centres outside Cardiff, bringing the total job cuts over the past year to nearly 16,000 claimed unions.Lloyds, which is 43% owned by the UK taxpayer, said the wholesale and retail sides of its business would see 685 posts lost by March 2011. Due to redeployment and the release of contractors, temporary staff and offshore personnel this would mean "A net reduction of 585 permanent group jobs across the UK".In wholesale, 475 jobs will be affected by the closure of all Black Horse customer lending centres and the moving of the business to Cardiff, while 210 retail jobs will go as a result of a strategy to merge teams to single locations.In insurance, the group will bring back some outsourced work to centres in Bristol and Edinburgh to create jobs.Bank workers union Unite slammed the move. "Unite is warning the LBG not to repeat its approach in 2009 where staff faced death by a thousand cuts as weekly announcements of job losses were made. The strategy last year has had a devastating effect on staff and created job insecurity for most colleagues," it said.The union claims more than 15,500 jobs have been shed since Lloyds merged with HBOS, but the bank would not confirm the figure."The group's policy is to use natural turnover and to redeploy people wherever possible to retain their expertise and knowledge within the UK. Whenever it can, it also brings work back into the group within the UK," Lloyds said.