By Tony Hallett, 26 May 1999 00:30
NEWS Barclays has stirred up more controversy after confirming it is to axe 300 core IT staff as part of its company-wide restructuring, announced last week. The personnel are to go from the UK high-street bank's Radbroke Hall facility in Knutsford, one of two main IT development centres. A source told Silicon.com: "They're basically getting rid of senior IT staff to cut overheads. With millennium issues still to be worked out. I'd have thought they would have wanted some of these people around at the end of the year." The source said the workers facing the chop are computer centre staff or developers. The banking union, Unifi, said it had been told at least 200 staff - many of whom have been ensuring Year 2000 compliancy - would go. Last Thursday, Barclays said it was reducing its total headcount by about 6,000 to cut costs. However, part of the bank's re-focusing was to include embracing technology. A Barclays spokeswoman said the IT cuts were not inconsistent with that strategy. "There are 6,000 jobs going - but 2,000 jobs are being created as well," she said. "We're not going to jeopardise our IT future, it will remain important to Barclays." Last month Barclays.net launched with some success. It offers consumers free Internet access and the ability to bank, and buy and sell shares online. However, the bank has been criticised for the unreliability of its national ATM (automated teller machine) network, with downtime caused in the past by problems at its Gloucester data centre.
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