Hiring almost doubles leaving at Banca Popolare di Sondrio: in 2023 there were 170 voluntary resignations, retirements and expiry of fixed-term contracts and 298 hirings. In 2024 same dynamics but with robust hiring.
For the unions, another 2,500 hires are needed
In the new industrial credit plans, the one to two ratio will no longer be enough for the unions, i.e. one hire for every two exits, but we will have to move towards a real balance.
This is because, as the general secretary of Fabi, Lando Maria Sileoni, explains to us, «with respect to the trade union agreements relating to the industrial plans signed in the last 8 years, the numbers do not add up and 2,500 hires are missing, as I explained during the negotiations for the renewal of the banking contract signed on 23 November. A result that derives from the fact that often halfway through the industrial plan there is an update, with further requests for staff reductions. Or there are more requests from workers to leave than the agreed numbers.”
Not only. Sileoni also notes that there is another aspect that is emerging. «Some institutes have started hiring again using all types of contracts, from apprenticeships to flexible contracts, from fixed-term contracts to temporary administration».
When it comes to employment, the union spotlight is on full blast. If we consider the banks that give representation mandate to Abi, also due to the many mergers and reorganisations, a clear decline in employment has been observed over the years: bankers today number less than 270 thousand compared to over 343 thousand in 2009. In cooperative credit banks, however, a certain stability is observed, around 37 thousand workers.
The transformations coming
Extending the period of analysis, Riccardo Colombani, general secretary of the First Cisl, says that «from 2011 to 2022, based on Bankitalia data, the sector has lost over 58 thousand jobs, despite the incentives provided by the Employment Fund having allowed 38 thousand hirings.
The entry of young people is essential and urgent. This is why we shared, in the recent contract renewal agreement, the generational relay with the synergy of resources between FOC and the Solidarity Fund. This is not enough: commitments are needed to maintain employment.” Certainly, adds Colombani, the great changes underway “must not be governed by reducing employment levels”.
Transformations are a topic that is very close to the heart of the general secretary of Fisac Cgil, Susy Esposito, for whom «the future of the sector, affected by an unprecedented process, which goes from digitalisation to sustainability passing through a new organization of work, must put work and employment at the centre. For us this is a strategic priority, in the negotiation of groups and companies as well as the national contract, and the agreement of November 23rd is there to demonstrate it. Hence the commitment to achieve a perfect balance in the relationship between income and expenditure, that is, a new entrance for every exit.”
More stable employment
Fulvio Furlan, general secretary of Uilca, adds that «creating the conditions for new stable employment, also with generational turnover, was one of the objectives pursued and achieved with the renewal of the contract.
We have relaunched the role of the FOC and placed people, well-being at work, time management and professional development at the center to relaunch the importance of the category and make the sector attractive also for the new generations. The control must take place with permanent collective bargaining at a national level, for example through the Control Room, and in companies, with agreements to manage reorganizations and changes, but also thanks to training”.
Emilio Contrasto, general secretary of Unisin/Confsal, concludes by saying that «especially at the level of second-level negotiations, a commitment has been made by companies to guarantee generational turnover. In the past, the turnover occurred on average with a ratio of one young colleague joining for every two leaving due to retirement and exodus exclusively on a voluntary basis. With the contractual renewal, the five trade union organizations have asked that the ratio between voluntary exits and new hires change to one to one. It will be necessary to take this into account in the procedures that we will have to face in the coming months.”
The new bilateralism for employment
In credit, negotiation, especially through extensive bilateralism, has always been very present in generational turnover. The latest contract strengthened it by maintaining the sector’s shock absorber, the Solidarity Fund which allowed almost 100 thousand bankers to exit through early retirement, always voluntary and always paid for by the companies.
With significant costs that are more than 250 thousand euros per worker who goes to the Fund. Even more so since, due to a tacit agreement with the unions, credit does not provide redundancy payments, even though it feeds the INPS coffers. In the sector supporting the transformations and evolution of skills with the new contract there are two new elements. The first is the national control room, created in 2019, which with the agreement last November, will extend its range of action to the digital bank and become the place of permanent discussion between Abi and trade unions on technological innovation, digitalisation, new tasks and professional figures. THE
the second is the synergy between the Employment Fund (FOC), powered by both workers and companies, and the Solidarity Fund. For the FOC, in general, the contribution increases for banks that hire, among other things, young people up to 36 years of age, disabled people, long-term unemployed: it goes from 2,500 euros to 3,500 euros per year (4,500 in the South). The big news concerns workers close to early retirement who accept the reduction in working hours, which will then be compensated by hiring: these workers will be paid, for a maximum of 36 months, an amount equal to 25% of the difference in salary, to compensate for the loss of wages and contributions.
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