RBS has come under fire as it is expanding its overseas operations, shortly after announcing “savage” branch cuts in Scotland.
The bank, which was bailed out by the Government in 2008, has been accused of a “staggering betrayal” of the taxpayer after advertising high skilled jobs in India and Poland.
The Scottish branches are set to close by next summer, many of which are in small towns and rural villages. Around 160 members of staff will lose their jobs in the move.
RBS is now seeking up to 100 business managers, analysts and software designers in Chennai, Gurugram and Mumbai, where salaries are thousands of pounds less than in the UK. After the branch closures were confirmed last week, Unite branded the cuts as “savage”.
Last night, Pat Rafferty, Scottish secretary of the union, said: “When we consider RBS is closing one in three of its branches in Scotland, we should remember it is taxpayer owned and was bailed out by the taxpayer to the tune of £45 billion.
“At the same time it has a deliberate policy of offshoring hi-tech jobs elsewhere. It is a staggering betrayal.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here