Alarm at Barclays cutting 66 jobs

Barclays announced in 2007 it was cutting 1,000 jobs in Poole

A union has expressed alarm at plans by banking giant Barclays to cut 66 jobs at its office in Dorset.

Unite said there was "real doubt" over the future of the bank's Poole site and criticised plans to move work overseas.

Barclays insisted the jobs - to be moved to India - were part of 1,100 job losses announced last year when it decided to offshore some work.

But Unite said the scope of the job cuts was changing and it believed the 66 job losses were new.

Steve Pantak, from Unite, said: "The latest job cuts by Barclays in Poole are very alarming.

'Solid assurances'

"The 66 roles are to be off-shored to India. Unite believes that there is now real doubt about the future of Barclays in the Poole area.

"The decision earlier in the year to cancel a new building, coupled with the accelerated winding down of jobs, leads Unite to believe that there is a real threat to the future of all staff in Poole.

"The union is calling on the bank to give solid assurances on their commitment to Poole and the remaining jobs."

It comes after the bank said on Monday that it was cutting more than 100 jobs in Cardiff under plans to outsource work in a department dealing with accounts when a customer dies.

A spokeswoman for Barclays said the 66 jobs cuts in Poole were part of the 1,100 redundancies announced in May 2007.

Those jobs are going over three years and at the end of that period there will still be 800 to 900 people working at Barclays House in Poole, she said.