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Lesson #101 on how not to retrench employees

UBS just has to in the running as the #1 employer in showing how not to retrench employees.

"Dozens of traders at UBS's offices in London learned in the worst way that they had lost their jobs when they turned up to work to find out that their security passes no longer worked at the turnstile.

The traders - many of them from the Swiss banking giant's fixed income department - soon discovered they had been put on two weeks special leave as part of UBS's plans to cut 10,000 staff in a retreat from fixed income.

As more turned up for work queues began to form at the bank's doors until some took refuge instead in the Railway Tavern pub nearby.
 
"I came into the office at twenty to seven, my pass didn't work so a beefy bouncer took me to the lift, where a different beefy bouncer was waiting for me," said one trader in the Railway Tavern, next to Liverpool Street station in the heart of the City of London financial district.

"I came straight here. Well not straight here because it only opened at 8am - I went ... for a coffee and breakfast (first)," he said.

Inside the pub, more than 20 UBS traders stood around drinking pints of lager and cheered as more arrived.

They said they had been given letters putting them on paid leave until further notice. But the traders have not been formally let go or even officially put at risk of redundancy.

The letters mark the start of a consultation over jobs at UBS related to its restructuring in fixed income.

UBS declined to comment.

Twitter was buzzing with comments from shocked staff Tuesday morning, including the old joke that UBS stands for “U’ve Been Sacked”.


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