
Please try another search
MILAN (Reuters) -Italian banking unions on Tuesday challenged the figure provided by BNL, the Italian arm of French banking group BNP Paribas (OTC:BNPQY), over the take up of the previous day's strike in a rare show of open confrontation in the sector.
BNL on Monday said 29.8% of its workers had joined the strike - the first such protest since the 1990s.
The bank said it had ensured it could continue to operate thanks to its digital capabilities at time when workers were also absent due to year-end holidays.
Unions on Tuesday said BNL should clarify how it had calculated the number given than 80% of branches had remained shut.
"Embracing the clear challenge launched by the company unions will strive to render even louder workers' cries of protest," Fabi, First-Cisl, Fisac-Cgil, Uilca and Unisin said in a joint statement.
Such a degree of confrontation is unusual in Italy's banking sector, where workers are only laid off through early retirement schemes offered to older employees on a voluntary basis and very costly for lenders to fund.
Under such schemes, workers receive up to 80-90% of the salary from a fund financed by the banks laying off staff until they actually qualify for pension.
Employees' requests to join the scheme normally exceed the number of departures planned by banks.
The animosity highlights the difficult phase the industry is enduring with negative rates making lending unprofitable, while it faces a digital challenge from non-banking players which are not subject to the same tight regulation and oversight.
Workers at BNL protested against its decision to use external providers for IT and back office services, a move that unions said affects 900 out of a total of 11,500 BNL employees in its central offices and around 700 branches across Italy.
Unions have also voiced grievances about BNL's sale to Worldline in July of an 80% stake in its card payment processing business Axepta Italy.
Are you sure you want to block %USER_NAME%?
By doing so, you and %USER_NAME% will not be able to see any of each other's Investing.com's posts.
%USER_NAME% was successfully added to your Block List
Since you’ve just unblocked this person, you must wait 48 hours before renewing the block.
I feel that this comment is:
Thank You!
Your report has been sent to our moderators for review
Add a Comment
We encourage you to use comments to engage with other users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind:
Enrich the conversation, don’t trash it.
Stay focused and on track. Only post material that’s relevant to the topic being discussed.
Be respectful. Even negative opinions can be framed positively and diplomatically. Avoid profanity, slander or personal attacks directed at an author or another user. Racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination will not be tolerated.
Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.