Banking giant Lloyds has been accused of “betrayal” after telling staff that 1,000 jobs are to be outsourced to a Dutch company.

Unite said pensions and some non-contractual benefits will be affected by the outsourcing of insurance work to Diligenta.

The Scottish Widows and Clerical Medical workforce will be sold by the bank and their employment transferred to the third party outsourcing subsidiary, affecting staff in Edinburgh and Bristol, said the union.

Scottish WidowsLloyds is selling workforces at both Scottish Widows and Clerical Medical (Philip Toscano/PA)

National officer Rob MacGregor said: “The wholescale transfer of 1,000 Lloyds Banking Group staff to Diligenta is nothing short of a betrayal of these workers.

“The bank’s ‘sale’ of its committed Scottish Widows and Clerical Medical staff represents contempt for long-serving and skilled employees.

“The decision to simply sell off the workforce will come as a shock to staff at the bank.

“Unite is calling on Lloyds to reconsider this shameful deal and do the right thing by its staff who have worked hard to ensure the business is the success it is today.

“The message from Lloyds Banking Group is loud and clear and appears to be ‘so long, thanks for your efforts, you work for them now’.”

A Lloyds spokesman said: "Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) has partnered with Diligenta to enhance its service proposition for customers with heritage life, pensions and investment products through a new digital platform.

"Diligenta already successfully manages more than 11 million life and pension policies in the UK on its end-to-end policy administration platform.

"The new platform will make managing heritage products simpler and more efficient for LBG customers.

"To provide a seamless handover of service, LBG will transfer some of its operational processes and IT applications, along with around 1,000 employees servicing heritage life, pensions and investment customers, who are expected to join Diligenta at existing LBG sites under a TUPE arrangement."

Diligenta is a UK-based subsidiary of Tata Consultancy Services, a leading provider of business process services for the life and pensions industry.