An email sent out by an employee at recruitment firm Hays has revealed the pay of over 3,000 temporary contractors at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).
According to the email, temporary staff at RBS were paid daily rates of up to £2,000.
An RBS spokesperson said: “We are extremely disappointed that confidential personnel data has been shared by one of our suppliers.
“This is unacceptable and we are taking action to address this issue. No customer information has been compromised.”
A spokesperson from Hays added: “Hays recognises that the correct treatment of data is of the utmost importance and has apologised to RBS for this error.
“We are taking the unauthorised release of this data extremely seriously and are working with RBS to recover the data from recipients where possible.
“Hays has launched an internal investigation to understand fully the circumstances that led to this unauthorised release of information and to review its procedures to ensure it cannot happen again.”
David Fleming, national officer at union Unite, said: “Unite has serious concerns about the widespread use of highly-paid staff on short-term contracts at a time when RBS continues to cut large numbers of staff.
“We have expressed to the bank our unhappiness that thousands of permanent staff are being sacked when contractor staff continue to work in other areas of the bank.
“Instead the bank should be investing in its staff through retraining and up-skilling. The use of such contract staff is about short-term fixes and not long-term investment in the workforce. Unite continues to challenge RBS on these issues.”
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