UK's RBS to axe another 9,000 jobs

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has said it is to cut a further 9,000 jobs over the next two years, in a move union leaders described as "devastating".The bank, now part-nationalised, said on Tuesday that it expected to save $3.7bn through the lay-offs in its back office operations, half of which will be in Britain.The bank said compulsory redundancies would be a last resort and that the overall impact of the job cuts would be lessened because of natural workforce turnover and a reduction in the number of temporary staff.But union leaders reacted angrily to the news.Rob MacGregor, from the trade union Unite, said the union was "appalled that thousands of people, who form the backbone of the RBS operations, are to be made redundant"."These employees are totally blameless for the current position which RBS is in, yet they are paying for the mistakes at the top of the bank," he said.