Banks are facing a structural change that is essential to continue to compete on international markets. He reiterated it yesterdayAbi during the meeting with the unions which led to theinterruption of negotiations for the contractual renewal of bankers, reiterating “the willingness to discuss safeguarding purchasing power and find innovative solutions that give prospects of sustainability to banks and workers. The anachronistic unwillingness of the trade unions to evaluate these openings positively – reads the note from the association – has led to the current stalemate”.
In particular, according to the ABI, "the economic cycle with the prolonged contraction of the GDP, the profound regulatory and supervisory changes, the significant changes in customer behavior and the evolution of the technological component place the banks in front of a structural change which will characterize the short, medium and long term, reflecting on organizational and business models. A context that will mark the future ability of Italian banks to continue to be competitive and measure themselves on the markets, continuing to guarantee support to businesses and households". The association therefore confirmed "the will to continue to confront all the way" with the unions without any instrumental intent but with the need to adapt the sector to new and profoundly different scenarios.
The location of the social parties. In yesterday's meeting "it was decided to break off the negotiations given the unacceptable position of the banking association", said the secretary general of the Uilca, Massimo Masi, underlining that Palazzo Altieri "continues slavishly to re-propose structural changes on labor costs, placing preliminary rulings on five essential elements: inflation, severance indemnities, seniority increases, contractual area and classifications".
Uilca "clearly rejects the proposal to cancel automatic salary increases from the national contract, provided for with seniority steps and with severance pay calculation items - he added -, the seriousness of which is exacerbated by the penalization of the new generations and by the absence of guarantees of possible economic recovery through second-level bargaining”. The union then "considers the counterparty's closure attitude to be completely irresponsible, also with reference to an overall scenario in which Italian banks find themselves penalized in the judgment that emerged from the stress tests with respect to the treatment reserved for similar sectors in other European countries".
Even the secretary general of Union unit, Emilio Contrasto, believes that at this point in the banking sector "a season of great conflict is opening", because the banking association "continues to want to pass on the cost of the strategic errors committed by the top management of Italian banks to the workers. Once again, Abi's responses to workers were closed, short-sighted and strongly characterized by the need to structurally compare the cost of labor and workers' guarantees. Faced with this attitude, the unified response of the trade unions was the rejection of these approaches”.
