British union criticises Lloyds Bank for job cuts in reorganisation

LONDON (Reuters) - A British labour union criticised Lloyds Banking Group <LLOY.L> on Tuesday for cutting 6,000 jobs as part of a reorganisation that the lender said would actually create 2,000 posts overall.

"This latest announcement will undoubtedly hit the morale of staff who have had to endure round after round of job cuts, branch closures and constant upheaval," said Rob MacGregor, national officer for the Unite union.

In a separate statement, Lloyds confirmed it is creating 2,000 net new jobs to help it provide more digital banking products and services.

"The group is investing to further digitise the bank and will refresh some existing roles and create new roles within its structure," the bank said. Around three-quarters of the jobs are expected to be filled by existing Lloyds staff and the cuts are not targeted at branch staff.

The lender has said it would invest 3 billion pounds ($3.9 billion) in technology and staff in response to customers' declining use of branches and competition from tech-savvy upstart firms with far cheaper cost bases.

All of Britain's high street lenders have been reducing their physical networks and focussing on technology to try to ward off threats from smaller, more nimble rivals and as customers increasingly look to bank online and via mobile apps.

Sky News reported the job cuts on Monday.

(Reporting by Lawrence White and Emma Rumney; Editing by Louise Heavens/Keith Weir)