Letter to New CEO, Alison Rose

Alison Rose took on the role of CEO following the departure of Ross McEwan. During her brief tenure, Rose oversaw the rebranding or RBS Group to NatWest Group and was in position during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rose would essentially be forced to resign in 2023 after she was at the centre of a scandal involving the leaking of confidential client information to a BBC journalist.

When it came to her relationship with Unite, the new CEO was seen as generally reluctant to engage and meetings with Unite officials often were refused or postponed. This led to Unite resorting to open letters in order to receive a response when direct conversations were refused.

This letter was published in November 2019.

Dear Alison

Unite the union would like to welcome you to your new role as Chief Executive of Royal Bank of Scotland. As the recognised trade union at the bank we would like to pass on our very best wishes as you embark on the task of addressing the challenges facing the bank.

Having worked within Royal Bank of Scotland Group for a number of years you will have seen the deep commitment and loyalty of staff within the organisation. Despite a decade of considerable change and significant upheaval, the workforce has continued to work relentlessly to return RBS to profitability and deliver growth.

Unite would like to meet with you at your earliest convenience in order to raise the issues that our members at Royal Bank of Scotland are concerned about and, most importantly, want action on in order to restore the confidence of staff.

Since the financial crisis, employees have seen thousands of their colleagues lose their jobs, many with years of service within the bank. They have seen the name of their employer, often appearing daily in the media, linked to numerous scandals or regulatory fines for poor practices. The workforce of RBS has had to pay for the mistakes made by the bank’s management.

Unite is optimistic that under your leadership, employees across the group can start to see meaningful change across Royal Bank of Scotland. Unite members are concerned about the security of their job, pay and reward, flexible working practices, increased stress and pressure on their mental health, unreasonable targets and the gender pay gap.

Unite is looking forward to hearing from you on how you will work with us to turn things around to ensure that the bank is the most successful it can be. We hope that you will agree with Unite that now is the time for the superb workforce to get the recognition they truly deserve.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Rob MacGregor

National Officer (Finance and Legal Sector)

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