Fat cat Barclays bosses were branded “obscene” yesterday for cutting up to 12,000 jobs while increasing the bonus pool for top executives to £2.38billion...

Barclays said around 7,000 of the jobs to go were in the UK and included branch-based roles. Around half of the affected employees have been told.

But the “scandalous” announcement of the 10 per cent bonus increase sparked fury after the bank revealed it came despite a 32 per cent drop in pre-tax annual profits to £5.2billion.

Angry unions attacked the bank with Unite saying the bonus increase would only drive up pay for those already on “unimaginably high salaries” at the expense of ordinary staff.

Unite national officer Dominic Hook said: “The culture change the bank promised will be less than skin-deep if those at the top still Hoover up obscene amounts of money while workers in call centres and branches struggle by on low wages and face the persistent pressure of job insecurity.”

The TUC added that it was “scandalous” that banks are still handing out multi-billion pound bonuses while ordinary Britons have suffered job losses, pay freezes and cuts to public services after the financial crisis. Full story...

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