Prospect of job losses at Northern Rock

by Richard Kilner

Story link: Prospect of job losses at Northern Rock

During the course of the next three years over two thousand jobs at struggling bank Northern Rock (which employs around six thousand) could go, according to the firm’s management.

Only two bidders remain for the beleaguered bank, an internal bid and a Virgin led consortium.

Speculation that around a thousand jobs could be lost should Virgin prove successful have been rejected by Virgin.

The internal bid, however, has not committed to retaining all the present staff.

Northern Rock’s two largest shareholders, hedge funds SRM Global and RAB Capital, have both backed the internal bid, having been long opposed to the Virgin consortium’s efforts to acquire the bank.

Job losses from the internal bid would be managed by transferring staff from sales to fill posts formerly held by employees who leave through natural attrition, though compulsory redundancies remain possible.