" Não existe almoço grátis"...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9072818/Lets-not-do-lunch-RBS-tells-pensioners.html

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The pensioner lunches were attended by 4,000 former employees at events held in cities, including London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Belfast. 

Uma tradição inglesa não suportou os dias difíceis porque passa a economia européia e decepcionou os pensionistas do RBS, Royal Bank of Scotland, e deu fim ao encontro anual de seus pensionistas.

"About 6,000 RBS pensioners received letters on Wednesday telling them the bank had decided to discontinue its annual lunches because of the "difficult economic climate".

The lunches had continued despite RBS's £45bn taxpayer rescue in 2008 and were attended by 4,000 former employees at events held in cities, including London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Belfast.

A letter to the pensioners from Lesley Davie, head of group pension services at RBS, read: "We appreciate this will be a disappointment to many of you who value the opportunity the lunches provide to meet up with ex-colleagues. Please be assured that we have not taken this decision lightly, however, like all other areas of the group, we have to take whatever measures possible to reduce our costs."

Before RBS's rescue the pensioner lunches were attended every year by former RBS chief executive, Fred Goodwin, who last week was stripped of his knighthood.

His successor Stephen Hester attended one of the events during his first year in the job. Since then he has delegated the responsibility. Last year no high-level RBS manager attended, it is understood."