Over 1,000 Scottish Widows and Clerical Medical staff are being moved to an outsourcing subsidiary of Tata.
Staff were informed on Tuesday that Lloyds Banking Group is transferring its closed book operations to TSC Diligenta, impacting people working in Edinburgh and Bristol.
Staff are expected to continue working at Lloyds premises but their contracts of employment will be transferred to Diligenta under Tupe rules.
Unite, the union, says long-serving members who are currently members of Lloyds defined benefit pension schemes will cease to accrue benefits after the transfer. Staff also stand to lose non-contractual benefits under the transfer, says Unite.
Unite national officer Rob MacGregor says: “The wholescale transfer of 1,000 Lloyds Banking Group staff to Diligenta is nothing short of a betrayal of these workers. The bank’s ‘sale’ of its committed Scottish Widows and Clerical Medical staff represents contempt for long serving and skilled employees.
“The decision to simply sell off the workforce will come as a shock to staff at the bank. Unite is calling on Lloyds to reconsider this shameful deal and do the right thing by its staff who have worked hard to ensure the business is the success it is today.
“The message from Lloyds Banking Group is loud and clear and appears to be ‘so long, thanks for your efforts, you work for them now’.
A statement for Lloyds Banking Group says: “Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) has partnered with Diligenta to enhance its service proposition for customers with heritage life, pensions and investment products through a new digital platform.
“Diligenta already successfully manages more than 11 million life and pension policies in the UK on its end-to-end policy administration platform. The new platform will make managing heritage products simpler and more efficient for LBG customers.
“To provide a seamless handover of service, LBG will transfer some of its operational processes and IT applications, along with around 1,000 employees servicing heritage life, pensions and investment customers, who are expected join Diligenta at existing LBG sites under a Tupe arrangement.”
