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Lloyds Banking Group will stop recognising the trade union membership of its highest-paid employees, replacing union negotiations with “people forums” to discuss issues ranging from job cuts and pay to health and safety.
In a memo sent to all staff last month, Lloyds, which has about 60,000 employees, said it had “reached a new agreement” with trade unions Unite and Accord.
This will change how the group “[consults] on collective matters such as organisational change, policies, reward and health and safeties”, the memo said. The high street bank is instead introducing three “new colleague forums to replace our current collective union agreement”.
Lloyds has voluntarily recognised the two unions since 2015, meaning that the two parties had an agreement to work together to negotiate over pay and other employment issues.
The bank, however, threatened to end its voluntary recognition of the union for all bargaining units, meaning the unions would have had to go through legal hurdles to obtain statutory recognition.
As a result, the unions agreed to keep the voluntary agreement in place for lower grade members with their “arm up [their] back”, said Accord general secretary Ged Nichols.
All Lloyds employees can still be union members but the unions will no longer be able to bargain over pay, terms and conditions on behalf of the senior staff.
The move to stop recognising union membership comes as Lloyds entered into a new “skills agreement” with Accord and Unite to “address the challenges from shifting customer demands, technological advancements and changes in the world of work”, the memo said.
The group is more than halfway into a £4bn strategic overhaul that involves digitising its operations to cut costs and boost returns. The bank has already reviewed thousands of middle-management jobs.
The changes will affect staff in higher-paid jobs in “grades D-G”, which include specialist roles in IT, risk and finance. Of those, 80 per cent were not members of either union, the bank said.
Lloyds said the group was adapting to “continue to meet our customers’ ever evolving needs” and was working closely with the unions to implement the changes from January.
As part of the change, Lloyds will from January introduce a “People Forum” made up of 16 unelected members who will be consulted by management on “strategic matters related to our business”.
The bank will also introduce a “People Consultation Forum” made up of 28 elected members who will be consulted on “organisation change, health and safety arrangements” and pension plans. It will also bring forward a “Management Advisory Forum” of 17 elected staff to “provide feedback” to management.
Nichols said union density had fallen over time as a result of acquisitions, branch closures and recruitment in the less heavily unionised tech sector.
“Despite all of this, union membership is high in [lower grades] in Lloyds Banking Group and not insignificant in other grades,” the Accord general secretary said. “Independent trade unions can provide more for employees than employer-led forums will ever be able to.”
Lloyds’ new policy around union membership also comes as the newly elected Labour government plans to give unions in the workplace more influence by lowering the threshold for recognition to just 2 per cent of staff.
Lloyds’ chief executive Charlie Nunn has been broadly supportive of the Labour government, with the bank having sponsored its International Investment Summit last month.
