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HBOS job cuts a 'body blow' for Aylesbury- Union

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Published Date: 23 November 2009
The trade union representing HBOS workers in Aylesbury has described the mass redundancies as a 'body blow' for the town.
Ged Nichols, General Secretary of Accord, said:

"Today's announcements are a body-blow for the workforce and for Aylesbury particularly as the Lloyds Banking Group is the largest private sector employer in the town.

"Accord's main concern is to avoid compulsory redundancies arising from any part of today's announcements. The terms and conditions of employment for those staff who Equitable Life is proposing to transfer to HCL is also a priority.

"Given that we have more time than is usually the case when announcements of this kind are made, our expectations of the employers are high and we will be having early meetings with the Lloyds Banking Group, Equitable Life and HCL.

"We are currently seeking legal advice about the proposed transfer of staff.

"We will have a team on site in Aylesbury with members this week to gauge their reactions and determine what other steps may need to be taken. Accord will be providing full support to every member affected by today's announcement."

"The union has written to all members who are impacted by today's announcements expressing disappointment with the decisions made by both ELAS and the Lloyds Banking Group in terms of the impact on employment - but we will focus on supporting our members at this difficult time.

"We have already been engaged in talks about how members' interests can best be protected in line with the Security of Employment Agreement and / or under the Transfer of Engagements (Protection of Employment) Regulations. Accord's legal advisers have already been instructed to enable us to take all necessary steps to uphold members' rights.

"We have had limited talks with HCL already and will be having more to ensure that those being transferred will be treated fairly.

"We will be addressing the terms and conditions of employment for those staff who Equitable Life is proposing to transfer to HCL and we will do everything we can to support members who may be at risk of redundancy before or after the proposed transfer."

Accord officers will be available in the Atrium in Aylesbury AOF2 on Thursday, November 26.

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  • Last Updated: 23 November 2009 3:35 PM
  • Source: n/a
  • Location: Aylesbury
 
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UKIP Aylesbury,

25/11/2009 17:09:23
The key questions are:

"How did we get here?"
"Who is to blame?"
and
"What should we do about it?

1.In a free market there will be lots of different banks making different decisions, and some will get it wrong... The market punishes those who get it wrong and there will always be failures. This acts as an object lesson to the others, ensuring that most of them remain honest, responsible and cautious, but it is messy, and innocent bystander get caught in the cross-fire.

2.It is tempting to protect the public from these continuous but self-contained failures by creating a central bank which will stand behind the commercial banks so that when they get it wrong the public are protected.

3.The "Central Bank and Regulation" formula prevents the frequent small specific crises but creates occasional large systemic crises instead.

4.It also places huge responsibility on the regulator. Results based regulation may work for most of the time but rules based regulation is always bound to fail.

FINALLY, WHAT SHOULD WE DO ABOUT IT?

1.Well, much as I hate to say it, given the mess we are in I think keeping the banks afloat is probably the only way out. Whether this is the right way of doing it, I don't know. I don't know enough about the technicalities to know if there are other, better alternatives.

2.It is imperative that the investment banking vehicles are floated off or closed down - and kept separate from commercial banking.

3.To re-capitalise the banks, deposits from investors must be attracted back in and this means raising interest rates to attract savings. If this means another blow to the housing market, we will just have to live with that. Holding up the property market by keeping interest rates artificially low simply delays a correction which must come eventually anyway.

4.We must ensure that "off-balance sheet" financing is forbidden - it caused trouble in the commercial world (eg., Enron) and it has now caused havoc in the banking sy
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UKIP Aylesbury,

25/11/2009 17:10:29
(Cont)
4.We must ensure that "off-balance sheet" financing is forbidden - it caused trouble in the commercial world (eg., Enron) and it has now caused havoc in the banking system (this relates to the issue I have not covered, the bond market).

5.We don't need more regulation - we need better regulation - and we need to make people responsible for their actions, both investors and banks. This means some people will get hurt - but if you try to prevent some people getting hurt you ensure that we all get hurt.

6.If we don't need more regulation, just better regulation, then we certainly don't need EU regulations which is "rules based regulation" par excellence.
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