That’s the feedback we’ve received from a member of staff on hearing the bank’s latest announcement. We understand that both Accord and Unite have agreed that all Lloyds branch staff will be required to stay behind until 4.30 pm to help out with customer calls. Only a few weeks ago the bank agreed to our proposal that staff should be allowed to go home when branches closed at 2pm.
The bank now says: “We are now seeing more customers than ever trying to contact us through our other channels, including those who currently can’t get to branch”. Did Jo Harris, Managing Director, Lloyds and Bank of Scotland Community Bank, not take the possibility of customers migrating between channels into account when she introduced the policy a few weeks ago? If she didn’t, then she should have done. Many branch staff will have made childcare and other caring arrangements based on what she said a few weeks ago, and those have now been thrown out of the window because of inadequate planning on the part of the retail bank.
We are reviewing the bank’s latest proposals and will cover in a further Newsletter.
Members with any questions on this should contact the Union’s Advice Team on 01234 262868 (choose Option 1).