Spain: BBVA signs agreement on staffing cuts demanded by Brussels after the banking group took over the Unnim Banc savings banks group

The BBVA bank and the trade unions announced that they signed a draft agreement which should lead to a 40 percent staffing cut at the Unnim Banc savings bank. This is to comply with Brussels' requirements after the bank bought it for 1 euro in March 2012. In the agreement, which should be officially adopted within a few days, the management and trade unions have laid down that 1,218 people (over one third of the workforce) would leave by 2014. There will be several phases and no layoffs (voluntary leave, early retirement, posting, transfer). (Ref. 120632)
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Unions are satisfied with the general conditions in which this difficult restructuring was negotiated. Indeed, the situation is complicated across the banking industry – specialists say 25 percent of Spanish banking agencies are bound to close within a few years.

Context. Unnim Banc, created in July 2010 after the merger between the small savings banks of Catalonia (Caixa Manlleu, Caixa Sabadell and Caixa Terrassa), was nationalized in September 2011 and then bought, in March 2012, by BBVA ban

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