A bank worker has been suspended after she boasted about getting a £6,000 redundancy payout from the Royal Bank of Scotland – on FACEBOOK.
Debt officer Katie Furlong, 23, posted her comments minutes after her bosses at the scandal-hit bank announced they were axing 3,500 jobs.
She bragged to pals that it was ”the best news ever” and that she would receive a ”nice payout”.
But furious bosses have suspended her, claiming she breached the company’s ”declaration of secrecy” and are threatening to sack her without paying her a penny.
The day RBS announced the cuts, Katie, from Telford, Shrops., wrote: ”They could’ve had me out long ago without a penny! More fool them! Haha! Xx.”
Days later she was hauled before bosses who told her she was suspended pending a disciplinary hearing.
Today Katie, who has worked for the bank for three-and-a-half years, said: ”RBS say that this is a breach of their ‘declaration of secrecy’ but I don’t think so.
”The information was already out there and all I was doing was having a chat with mates.
”I’ve been an excellent employee and now they’re prepared to boot me out on my ear over a slight hiccups. It’s appalling.
”They’ve dealt with this in a very underhand way.
”I think now that they’re going to get rid of me to avoid paying me for redundancy.
”I would have received at least £6,000 as a redundancy payment, but the cost of an employment tribunal will cost them more.
”This leaves me in a situation with no job, no reference, about to commence university studies part-time and with a very difficult few years ahead of me.
”All this just to save RBS the inconvenience of paying me a few thousand pounds redundancy.”
On September 2, RBS chiefs announced plans to slash 3,500 back-office jobs after 318 of its branches were bought by Spanish bank giant Santander.
Katie, who was off work sick, received a phone call from her manager telling her she would have to take redundancy or relocate to Birmingham.
Minutes after the call she wrote her first message on Facebook at 5.58pm.
She said: ”I speak for myself when I say WoOOOOooooOooooHOoooOooOoo’ it was pretty damn obvious something like this was coming.
”I’m neither stupid nor naive…and quote (sic) honestly it is the best news ever as far as I am concerned!”
She continued at 6.02pm: ”They will give us the option to take early retirement (for those eligible obviously), transfer to Birmingham and if so, the possibility of a travel allowance, or redundancies. Either way, SCORE!!!”.
At 20.17 she wrote: ”It was not unexpected. I’ve just hung on by my fingertips to stick around long enough for a nice payout when they could’ve had me out long ago without a penny! More fool them! Haha! Xx.”
A colleague who saw the comments reported her to her boss who suspended her when she returned on September 13.
RBS spokesman Nigel Meffen said it was the bank’s policy not to comment on individual staff.
But in a letter to Miss Furlong, bosses said: ”We write to inform you that you are suspended from duties with immediate effect.
”This is as a precautionary measure until such times as we carry out further investigations into the matter of alleged gross misconduct.”
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