Workers at Deutsche Bank HQ call for Jain to quit as job cuts loom

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Labor representatives at Deutsche Bank's Frankfurt headquarters called on Thursday for the resignation of co-Chief Executive Anshu Jain as Germany's largest lender prepares to slash jobs. The works council representing employees in key administrative functions at the bank's "corporate center", based at its twin tower head offices, said staff morale was suffering, according to a flyer distributed by the council. The existence of the flyer was first reported by daily Handelsblatt. "A radical new start would restore our credibility and could produce a real boost to morale," the council wrote in the flyer, which it produced independently and not in coordination with other works councils at the bank, the paper wrote. Around 2,500 employees work in the corporate center, involved in functions including finance, audit, tax, legal, investor relations, communications as well as group strategy and planning. Deutsche Bank, which declined comment on the flyer, has 98,615 staff globally, of which 45,803 work in Germany. The labor representatives who distributed the flyer are not members of the bank's supervisory board, or board directors where labor representatives hold half the seats. The bank's vice-chairman of the supervisory board, Alfred Herling, who oversees management, said he was not aware of any critique of individual members of management at the supervisory board level, Handelsblatt said. The bank is preparing some 4.7 billion euros ($5.1 billion) in cost cuts that are expected to hit staff worldwide, as part of a strategy designed to pare its retail and investment banking exposure. Jain was made directly responsible for reforms and cost cuts in a boardroom shakeup last week. (Reporting by Kathrin Jones and Thomas Atkins; Editing by David Holmes)