The new duel between banking unions e Abi seems to be upon us after the months of respite following the renewal of the contract. The first skirmishes (light foil shots for the moment) arrived yesterday afternoon during the "2015 HR Forum" held in Rome. Starring the general secretary of Fabi Lando Maria Sileoni and the Chairman of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena and of the ABI Trade Union and Labor Affairs Committee, Alessandro Profumo. The matter of contention: the next season of bank mergers and possible redundancies. Redundancies which, according to data released yesterday by Fabi, could be between now and 2020, a good 19.700 e which are added to the over 27 credit workers who left in the last 5 years. To be penalised, according to Fabi, would above all be the rich regions such as Lombardy, Piedmont and Tuscany where in the last 6 years respectively 7, 3.400 and almost 4 jobs in banks have been cut.
According to the secretary Fabi Lando Maria Sileoni, "a new system pact is needed to prevent the forthcoming mergers from creating yet another haemorrhage of jobs". For Sileoni, “a common and shared political decision is needed to guarantee stability in the credit sector, maintaining employment levels and ensuring that the current 309 employees remain within the credit perimeter. The online banking model must be shared by the social partners”.
Alessandro Profumo does not think at all in the same way, who responds to Sileoni's fears by immediately explaining that a season of 'zero redundancy' mergers will be impossible. “We cannot think – said Profumo – that the reorganization process has zero impact. It is essential to have further processes of aggregation, cost reduction and new business opportunities”.
To avoid a real bloodbath over the next few years the Fabi proposed the formation of a joint commission to the Association of Italian Banks, made up of representatives of ABI and trade unions in the sector to assess the impacts of new technologies on the banking sector.
According to Fabi, this commission will also have the task of identifying retraining and professional reconversion paths for credit workers, to prevent the development of online channels from leading to a new wave of redundancies.
Redundancies which, according to the data released yesterday by Fabi, could be as many as 2020 between now and 19700 and which add up to the over 27 credit workers who have left in the last 5 years.
