Italy: Banco Popolare introduces sabbatical to combine cost cutting and work-life balance requirements

This “agreement is particularly innovative because it combines banks’ need to save money and workers’ private demands.”  This is what Fabi’s Banco Popolare coordination said to define the agreement trying out a new form of sabbatical, signed on January 26 by the group and the Dircredit-FD, Fabi, Fiba-Cisl, Fisac-CGIL, Sinfub, UGL-Credito and Uilca unions.  Aiming to face the sector’s difficulties and to look for “balanced solutions” to combine cost management and the “satisfaction of personal demands,” the signatories came up with this plan which takes on organizational needs and the issue of work-life balance, under a new angle.