Agreement signed on reorganisation of IntesaBci bank

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In December 2002, IntesaBci, Italy's largest banking group, signed an agreement with trade unions, providing for the use of the banking sector's 'solidarity fund' to encourage 5,700 employees to depart voluntarily, mainly through early retirement. The workforce reductions result from a major three-year restructuring plan drawn up by company.

Banca Intesa was established in 1998 after the merger of two Italian banks - Cassa di Risparmio delle Province Lombarde (Cariplo) and Ambrosiano Veneto- and it has since purchased some other minor banks. In 2001, following merger with Banca Commerciale Italiana, Banca Intesa became Italy's largest banking group and one of Europe's main retail banking providers, and was renamed IntesaBci. IntesaBci is present throughout Italy and in many other countries, and has about 13 million clients, of which 9 million are private individuals and 1 million are Italian companies.

The company’s policy reflects the current restructuring in the Italian banking sector, whereby activities are being concentrated in the hands of a small number of large groups able to deal with international competition, while at the same time banks seek to retain their control over the domestic market (IT0212101N). In this context, IntesaBci management recently presented a three-year plan (2003-5) providing for a major reorganisation and restructuring of the group's companies, including substantial workforce reductions.

As part of this process, on 5 December 2002, IntesaBci signed an agreement seeking to encourage the 'exodus' of 5,700 employees before 1 April 2005, with the main sectoral trade unions - the Italian Banking and Insurance Federation (Federazione Italiana Bancari e Assicuratavi, Fiba) affiliated to the Italian Confederation of Workers’ Unions (Confederazione Italiana Sindacati lavoratori, Cisl), the Italian Federation of Insurance and Credit Workers' Unions (Federazione Italiana Sindacale Lavoratori Assicurazioni e Credito, Fisac) affiliated to the General Confederation of Italian Workers (Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro, Cgil) and the Union of Italian Credit, Collection and Insurance Workers (Uil Credito, Esattorie e Assicurazioni, Uilca) affiliated to the Union of Italian Workers (Unione Italiana del Lavoro, Uil) - plus three independent unions - the Independent Federation of Italian Bank Workers (Federazione Autonoma Bancari Italiani, Fabi), the Independent Federation of Italian Credit and Savings Workers (Federazione Autonoma Lavoratori del Credito e del Risparmio Italiani, Falcri) and the managerial staff union, Federdirigenti.

The agreement provides for:

• geographical mobility, requested by both workers and the company. Such transfers have to 'take into account the distance between where the worker lives and the job location';
• the requalification of staff through new training programmes;
• increased use of part-time work above the threshold set by the national sectoral collective agreement;
• a reduction of overtime work, which will be used only in the event of the emergence of specific needs;
• partial or total suspension of performance- and productivity-related payments for the 2002 business year. During 2003, the parties will meet to decide a new bonus for the 2003 and 2004 business years; and
• a one-off payment of EUR 258 gross for all workers to replace the 2002 company bonus.

Furthermore, the company is also planning to limit the effects on staff of the planned workforce reduction by encouraging early retirement. To this end, the company will make recourse to the 'Income, employment, requalification and reconversion solidarity fund for the support of banking sector personnel' (Fondo di solidarietà per il sostegno al reddito, dell'occupazione e della riconversione e riqualificazione professionale del personale del Credito), created in 1998 (IT9803321F) to help manage the reorganisation of the banking sector.

Workers with less than five years to go until reaching retirement age will have access to payments from the solidarity fund for a maximum of 60 months. The agreement provides for a series of benefits and economic incentives for all workers willing to accept early retirement on a voluntary basis:

• workers who retire early within 45 days of the signature of the agreement will receive a payment worth 7.4% of their annual wage;
• benefits from the company’s healthcare fund will be kept until retirement;
• the company will pay to the workers involved the same amount of money it would otherwise have paid on their behalf to the company’s supplementary pension fund until retirement;
• the special easier banking and credit conditions which apply to in-service personnel will be maintained for those retiring early; and
• workers will be safeguarded from any possible negative financial effects resulting from changes in the pension system which might occur during the period in which they benefit from the redundancy fund.

Other workers who, on the signature of the agreement, have met all the requirements to qualify for a pension will receive financial coverage for the period between the end of the employment relationship and their retirement date. During this period, these workers will also receive, as an incentive to depart, a monthly sum corresponding to the value of the monthly payments they would have received if they were entitled to the solidarity fund.

The 'exodus' will be organised as follows: 2,600 workers will leave the company during 2003 (1,300 on 1 April 2003 and 1,300 on 1 July 2003), another 2,500 will go before 1 April 2004; and 600 more will depart before 1 April 2005.

If the number of workers who leave on a voluntary basis is not sufficient, the workforce-reduction measures will become obligatory.

The agreement provides that the signatories will meet once a year, in October, to assess the fulfilment of the objectives of the company's 2003-5 plan. In October 2004, the partners will also examine the possibility of introducing an employee share-ownership scheme. Moreover, the parties will meet in March 2003 to talk about a new industrial relations model and its contents, which should strengthen relations between the parties and the powers of trade union representatives at local level.

Extraordinary meetings may be called by any of the parties to analyse the cost/income situation in relation to the objectives set out in the company plan. The agreement establishes, to this end, a temporary consultative committee, with one member each from the three main trade unions.

The agreement also reinstates until 31 December 2004 a number of agreements in force which had been rescinded by IntesaBci in order to put pressure on the trade unions in the current talks.

The parties took a positive view of the agreement. In a joint press release, the signatory trade union organisations said that the 'agreement signed is a well balanced solution in the face of a negative national and international banking market trend, in a situation where the group has serious managerial and profitability problems which have led to the closure of many branch offices and to finding new distribution channels for alternative bank products following the accentuation of the merger and acquisition process among banks'.