Italy: banking sector employers pitted against trade unions over bank branch closures

On 16 March 2020 Italy’s banking sector social partners signed a protocol document to combat the coronavirus and protect both workers and customers. While the sector’s trade unions were calling for total branch closures for a period of two weeks, the executive committee of the employers’ body, the Associazione Bancaria Italiana (ABI), which met on 18 March, opted for an intermediate response involving a sharp reduction in customer access to the branch offices. Trade unions are ready to take action and are appealing directly to the government.
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The ABI’s decision. Following a long meeting on 18 March, the executive committee of the banking sector’s employers’ body, the ABI approved a protocol document that was signed on Monday evening 16 March by the sector’s trade unions: Fabi, First-Cisl, Fisac-Cgil, Uilca, and Unisin. However the ABI did not take up the trade unions’ primary demand, namely a full two-week nationwide bank branch closure. The ABI did concede that ‘the situation in the highly contagious areas did require that extraord

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