Barclays to axe 248 jobs at Westwood Business Park, Coventry

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Westwood Business Park office.Image source, Google
Image caption,
A total of 248 jobs will go at the Westwood Business Park office

Barclays has announced plans to axe almost 250 call-handler jobs at its Coventry base.

The banking giant said it had made the "strategic decision" to improve "customer service" and "efficiency" at the Westwood Business Park office.

It said it was trying to find alternative jobs for those affected.

It comes just three years after Barclays announced plans to close its contact centre at Walsgrave in the city with the loss of 350 jobs.

'Worry and anxiety'

Trade union Unite said it was a "serious blow" because many of those workers had transferred to the Westwood site.

National officer Dominic Hook said: "This centre has around 200 permanent roles plus many more agency and contractor workers.

"This announcement will bring tremendous worry and anxiety to these staff."

A total of 248 jobs will go by the end of December, including 63 temporary roles.

There are 1,500 Barclays workers based at the office in total.

Mr Hook added: "The union's entire focus will be on pressing Barclays to find suitable alternative roles for staff within Barclays at Westwood and in Birmingham."

The Westwood base is one of three currently used by Barclays' customer payments solution, digital and social media teams.

Bosses wants the teams to work from just two sites in the future.

A statement from Barclays said: "Regrettably, this will mean that a number of roles will fall away in Coventry, and so we are working closely with our colleagues impacted, to help them through this process and secure alternative roles where possible.

"We have approximately 1,500 staff who currently work at Westwood Park in Coventry which remains a key location for a number of our operations."

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