Collective agreement in sight at Fortis

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After several months of negotiations between management and trade unions at the Belgian operations of the Fortis financial services group, a collective agreement drawn up with support from an official conciliator was due to be signed in early February 2005. The proposed deal contains guarantees on employment and provisions on Saturday opening.

Trade unions and management at the Belgian branch of the Belgo-Dutch banking and insurance group Fortis were due to meet on 1 February 2005 to sign a new collective agreement that had been the subject of negotiations lasting several months. The talks had reached an impasse when management announced during summer 2004 that it had decided to back out of an earlier collective agreement guaranteeing employment levels until 31 December 2004, on the grounds that the talks between the social partners were not making any progress. However, in September, they were able to resume with the support of an official conciliator.

On 13 January 2004, the official conciliator was able to put a draft agreement to the trade unions at Fortis. The conciliator’s proposal had three main aspects:

• guaranteed employment levels for five years (with an assessment after three years);
• in the event of restructuring, the enterprise would promise to offer new jobs backed up by appropriate training for the people concerned, and if no similar job was available, the possibility of voluntary early retirement starting at a certain age or with a certain length of service, with a guaranteed minimum income; and
• the possibility, following consultation with the trade unions and the works council (conseil d'entreprise/ondernemingsraad), of extending branch opening hours in the evenings and on Saturdays. Pay for Saturday work would range from 150% to 160% of the normal rate. The branch network would recruit 150 extra staff on full-time and open-ended employment contracts, thereby raising the total workforce of branches from 8,500 to 8,650.

The National Federation of White-Collar Workers (Centrale Nationale des Employés/Landelijke Bedienden Centrale, CNE/LBC), was able to elicit broad-based approval from its activists for the deal. The Federation of Liberal Trade Unions of Belgium (Centrale Générale des Syndicats Libéraux de Belgique/Algemene Centrale der Liberale Vakbonden van België, CGSLB/ACLVB) which had turned its back on consultations in November 2004, unanimously rejected the draft agreement. The Union of White-collar, Technical and Executive Employees (Syndicat des Employés, Techniciens et Cadres/Bond der Bedienden, Technici en Kaders, SETCa/BBTK) was still awaiting a mandate to reach a decision in late January. Management, on the other hand, said that it was ready to sign the collective agreement 'providing SETCa/BBTK signs as well as CNE /LBC'.

Three days before the new agreement was due to be signed, Jean-Paul Votron, Fortis’s new chief executive, unveiled to the press the group’s new strategy for the coming years. He said that the group had to save EUR 100 million by the summer of 2006. Savings had to be made through increased productivity and reduced costs. Fortis unions were only officially informed of this economy plan on 31 January at an extraordinary meeting of the European Works Council.