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RBS to cut 880 IT jobs in London by 2020, says Unite

State-backed Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS.L - news) is planning to cut 880 IT jobs by 2020, Unite has said.

The bank has told staff it will be cutting 40% of permanent staff (650 roles) at its London office and a further 65% of contractors (230 posts), according to the union.

RBS employed 2,200 staff overall in 2016. The number of staff employed in London will be reduced to 950 in around three years' time, Unite claimed

"By 2020 just a fraction of the RBS IT function will remain, leaving this organisation operating a skeleton service with the customers and remaining staff paying the price," said Rob MacGregor, Unite national officer.

"RBS' fixation with cutting employee numbers, restructuring and offshoring work that could reasonably be done by displaced staff within the RBS IT community is unacceptable.

"This British-taxpayer-funded bank should be concentrating on investing in jobs here in the UK, rather than wholesale cuts.

"Unite is angry that the massive scale of IT job losses will sap morale, productivity and faith in the company."

The lender, which is 71% owned by the Government, said the latest phase of its downsizing plan was still in the early stages.

It comes months after chief executive Ross McEwan ordered a cost-cutting drive widely expected to result in job losses and branch closures.

An RBS spokesperson said: "Inevitably as RBS becomes a simpler, smaller bank focused on the UK and Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) , our technology function will undergo reorganisation and will reduce over time.

"As we develop long-term plans for our technology business, we have, in the interests of transparency, started to share our emerging proposals on a future operating model with Unite.

"We have not consulted on any headcount reduction, instead sharing a direction of travel with Unite which is subject to change.

"Our proposed plans are designed to reduce the number of contractors we employ and strengthen our permanent workforce and while we are downsizing in London we are reinvesting in other UK hubs."