(Adds detail, context, union quote)
By Iain Withers
LONDON, Aug 10 (Reuters) - British bank TSB has told its
cashiers their jobs will be phased out early next year after a
steep decline in customers banking at its branches because of
the COVID-19 pandemic, staff union TBU told Reuters on Monday.
Affected branch staff were told they would have to retrain,
change roles or take voluntary redundancy, according to a staff
memo.
A total of 929 staff are affected, a TSB spokesman
confirmed, adding that employees were being given a choice as it
phased out non-specialist roles.
Banks across the industry are looking to cut costs in the
face of an expected spike in loan losses resulting from the
pandemic.
TSB's Spanish parent Sabadell said in July that it was
looking at accelerating cost-cutting at the British business,
after its subsidiary posted a 64 million euro ($75.2
million)loss for the first half of the year.
"TSB was already facing major cost problems and this looks
like them jumping on the bandwagon, using the pandemic as an
excuse to get rid of these roles," said TBU General Secretary
Mark Brown.
"They don't know whether people will return to branches once
this pandemic is over."
In the staff memo, TSB encouraged affected employees to
retrain for more complex roles involving helping customers to
open accounts or to use digital services, adding that it expects
fewer customers to use branches for basic transactions.
($1 = 0.8512 euros)
(Reporting by Iain Withers
Editing by David Goodman)