By Sophie Sassard and Lionel Laurent
LONDON/PARIS, Sept 8 (Reuters) - French lender Societe Generale has started to cut staff as it adjusts its business to the worsening outlook for investment banking and the dire impact of Europe's debt crisis, employees and union sources say.
The cuts -- mainly in SocGen's corporate and investment bank (CIB) in the Paris region, where half of its staff is located -- have so far been more of a trickle than a wave, but unions say they are on alert for more to come.
"The lay-offs have already begun in CIB," said one employee. "One guy came back from vacation to find a cheque waiting for him...He was told that if he wanted to take it to an employment tribunal it would be long and arduous."
If this anecdotal evidence is accurate, the bank may be avoiding the need for a costly and tightly-regulated redundancy exercise, Paris-based lawyer Mabrouk Sassi said.
"In France there are clear rules when it comes to firing people," he said. "Rather than go into a complex layoff programme that may not be permissible in the current environment, it is possible that there might be a concerted effort by management to reduce staff levels."
A spokeswoman for SocGen said: "At the moment we are stabilising our staffing levels because of the worsening market environment." She added that the bank had not put into place any overall plan to reduce staff.
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