Organising Campaign at Lloyds

Unite is to embark upon a major recruitment drive at Lloyds Banking Group by launching a campaign about the "unachievable" sales targets set by the bank which is 43%-owned by the taxpayer. The union is also calling on all banks to learn from their mistakes and abandon the sales culture that dominated the industry before the banking crisis.
The campaign follows the announcement this week of a further 5,000 job losses at Lloyds, on top of the 8,000 that had been revealed previously. As well as voicing concern about their job prospects, staff at Lloyds have told Unite that their bonuses are based on sales targets that were set before the credit crunch and that they feel under pressure to sell products to achieve their earnings potential.
Some of the staff affected earn £13,000 a year and rely on their bonuses – often about £2,000 – to make ends meet. While the government has imposed a limit on cash bonuses to employees earning more than £39,000, Unite is targeting staff who earn considerably less than that.
Unite will argue that it is now time to end the link between sales and staff pay in the financial services industry and instead put a focus on customer service.
Rob MacGregor, Unite national officer for the Finance sector, said the sales culture "encourages staff to sell customers products that they do not want or need".
Unite is offering an alternative way to motivate and pay staff which would end the link to selling products to customers.
"The union is calling for a new focus towards high standards of customer service and fair wages for all staff," it said.
Banks have faced challenges in the past about the way their bonus systems for branch staff operate.