Unicaja Banco held today the second meeting, face-to-face, with the legal representation of employees (rlt) as part of the informal period of employment negotiation following the merger with Liberbank
At the said meeting, the management has notified that, after a rigorous technical analysis of the economic, productive and organizational situation of the company, it deems necessary to start a collective dismissal measure, as a legal mechanism to implement the internal resizing, subject to negotiation with the RLT, for 1,513 employees.
The negotiation process is focused in the areas of staff resizing, geographical mobility and modification of working conditions, as it was informed at the first meeting held on 22 September.
This process responds to the achievement of the institution’s strategic targets included in the draft merger terms and falls within the sector trends in a complex environment subject to several changes. The said process seeks, among others, to improve the bank’s profitability and efficiency (through the elimination of overlaps and the use of economies of scale), to adapt its structure to the current context, marked by a general transformation of the financial system, with a view to achieve the synergies included in the draft merger terms, as well as to preserve a competitive market position.
All of the above taking into account the current situation where business profitability and efficiency continue to be deteriorated in the sector due to low interest rates, the need for further provisioning, the increasing regulatory pressure, the high investments in technology needed to face the sector digital transformation and the need to maintain and improve the bank’s attraction to get investors and the capital required to increase lending to companies and families and to support the economic development of the society.
This process intends to improve the bank’s profitability and efficiency, within the framework of Unicaja Banco’s strategic targets, continuing, after having become the fifth banking institution in the Spanish market, with the effort in the containment and reduction of costs related to the transformation of the business model and process automation and simplification.
The proposal that the bank has communicated to the RLT is based on the following measures:
- Staff resizing through a labour force adjustment plan (ERE, Expediente de Regulación de Empleo) for 1,513 employees.
- A collective measure of geographical mobility.
- The modification of working conditions, to harmonise the pre-existing working conditions in both institutions.
The negotiation process is currently in a situation of informal negotiation, started on 22 September and due to last for 15 days at least, as established in the Additional Provision Five of the Collective Agreement of Savings Banks and Savings Financial Institutions (Convenio Colectivo de Cajas y Entidades Financieras de Ahorro), prior to the formal consultation period regulated by the Statute of Workers (Estatuto de los Trabajadores).
