A series of 24 hour strikes starting on May 27th, the day before the extended bank holiday weekend, have been arranged by the Amicus union, which represents 25,000 HSBC clerical staff in the UK.
If the industrial action goes ahead, HSBC faces being left dealing with thousands of angry customers, who will have been denied access to banking services for four days.
In a cryptic response to the upcoming troubles, HSBC said it will reach out to customers during the strike, according to the This is London website. However, the financial organization failed to elaborate on its plans.
Amicus’ planned strike action, which it hopes will include the enforced closure of branches and the server limiting of call center capabilities, comes as a result of anger over an offer by HSBC to increase branch and back office staff’s pay by less than the rate of inflation.
Amicus claims that 50% of staff that it represents will receive either no pay rise or a rise that is below inflation.
HSBC recently announced profits for 2004 of GBP10 billion.
