Barclays is laying off another 400 IT staff whose "roles and responsibilities are unclear".

This follows the loss of more than 1, 800 jobs in July when Barclays off-shored parts of its IT department. Later that month it also forced contractors to take a ten per cent salary cut.

Most of the jobs will go from Radbroke Hall in Cheshire and London but there will be some losses at the Poole and Northampton offices.

An internal email from Jim Ditmore, global director of GISD, and Unite national secretary Keith Brookes, which was sent to the Register said: "We jointly understand that these job losses occur in the eye of a recession and are not desired or welcome."

The email said the rationale for the restructure was to better integrate and consolidate teams, reduce management layers and bureaucracy and improve performance thanks to a better structure. The bank also said it focussed on cutting contractors first and hoped to use voluntary redundancies whereever possible. The Barclays staffer who sent us the newsletter complained that the department was already working flat out because previous cutbacks had left them seriously under-staffed.

Barclays sent us the following statement:

“Barclays continually reviews its operations and resources so that it functions as efficiently as possible as business needs and customer requirements evolve.

As part of this process, we have identified some aspects of our technology operations where the organisational structure impedes performance, and roles and responsibilities for colleagues are unclear. In some cases, roles are obsolete or being duplicated elsewhere within the bank.

This will affect around 400 positions: 150 permanent staff and 250 contractors. All of the roles affected are UK-based, principally in Cheshire and London. None of the roles are being off-shored.

We will, of course, take all possible measures to mitigate compulsory redundancies through releasing contractors, closing vacancies and opening voluntary redundancy registers. Affected employees will be given the opportunity to apply for other roles within Barclays. We would work with the individuals affected and offer them one-to-one support to minimise the impact. Barclays has worked – and will continue to work – in partnership with Unite and has held regular meetings regarding the changes.”

Union Unite will be offering advice at Barclays UK sites from 8 January, the union did not return phone calls by press time. ®

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