UK's biggest union wants N. Rock staff protected

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The government is bringing the mortgage lender under public ownership in an attempt to clean up a politically damaging crisis at the bank which has had to borrow about 25 billion pounds from the authorities to stay afloat.

But the political fall out could get worse for Prime Minister Gordon Brown if widely expected job cuts are made.

"Unite wants a commitment to no compulsory redundancies and in case of any voluntary redundancies for workers to be compensated at the same level as our European counterparts," Unite Deputy General Secretary Graham Goddard said.

"Throughout this crisis the workforce has been committed to the future of the company and they deserve recognition for this."

Before the government rejected a private sector takeover of the bank on Sunday, there had been speculation that as many as a third of Northern Rock's 6,000-plus staff could lose their jobs.

Unite, which formed last year out of two of Britain's largest unions Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union, said the bank's staff should now be given guarantees for their future.

"Unite is demanding that the government take strong steps to guarantee that the employees of Northern Rock do not suffer as a result of their decision to take the bank into public ownership," the union said.

(Reporting by Matt Falloon; Editing by Erica Billingham)