International Relations

Barclays workers on strike against closing of italian branches

On February 22th 2016, Italian trade unions affiliated to UNI and organizing in Barclays broke the negotiation with the management and declared one day of strike on Friday March 4th  with a protest in front of ABI (Italy Banking Association) in Milan to defend the right of employment.

Into the negotiation for redundancies, the positions of Italian trade unions on the one hand and of Barclays management on the other hand are very far apart. A sustainable solution could not yet be reached.

The main conflict points leading up to the strike are the following:

• The suggested exit package offered by Barclays for 160 redundant employees  is considered unacceptable by the trade unions
• At the moment, there are no guarantees of employment, not even for those additional 120 people who will remain, but are working onto assets that were declared from Barclays noncore and subject to future dismissal and/or selling.

Italian trade unions call for a true social dialogue at the company level and group level in order to find solutions.

________________________

The National Secretariats of the Italian Trade Unions member of UNI Finance, denounce the abandonment of the Italian market by Barclays Bank, and the disinterest in the destiny of 1,000 workers and their families.

The British Barclays Bank Group had already announced its intention to leave this market, but only during the last few weeks the will to abandon the market and eventually dismantle all its activities has been concretized, also through the transfer of one company branch.

The announcement that nearly half of workforce will follow the “expensive” transfer of the company branch does not put the employees at ease, especially those whose only perspective is the loss of employment

The Italian financial market must once again face a scenario in which a foreign bank appears aggressive, pursuing immediate business growth targets and lacking any long-term strategy.

This is what Barclays did, and it was not a long time before the trade union’s answer arrived.

At all levels, we are putting emphasis on this unacceptable behavior, a behavior that the bank already displayed in Italy in the 80s and again in the 90s.

Now, the Italian Banking Association (ABI) must struggle to ensure that the Barclays case will be solved in an orderly and positive way, commit to safeguard the jobs and verify the actual implementation of the reorganization, in order to reinforce the capacity of the sector to manage the situation, using all possible tools.
The reaction of the Italian trade unions affiliated at UNI Finance will be proportional to the unacceptable attitude of the Management of Barclays.