The 30,000 workers of Sberbank that are to be made redundant soon will actually not be fired, they will be transferred to other positions, head of Russia’s largest bank German Gref told Komsomolskaya Pravda in an interview on Friday, RIA Novosti reports.

‘Considerably fewer workers are needed now due to increased productivity of labor. However, we have no intention of firing them. This people’s potential is to be evaluated, and new jobs will be offered for them. Our business keeps expanding every day,’ he said.

Gref actually said earlier that 30,000 people would be laid off following the bank’s upgrade program.

Sberbank currently employs 240,000 people. At the end of 2009, the bank’s management announced that for the next five years, about 5% of personnel would be made redundant every year, which should amount to 20%-25% of workers over the entire period.