After many rumors and unconfirmed figures, Unicaja Banco has raised this Tuesday to the unions the dismissal of 1,513 employees of the group, which represents approximately 15% of the workforce after its merger with Liberbank. Of the total, 508 workers will come from the central services and 1,005 from the branch network. Unicaja has announced the closure of 395 branches, 28% of which it currently has, totaling 1,400. Unicaja contributes almost 900 offices to the merger and the rest Liberbank. Since the two merged banks were listed on August 2, the value has risen 14% on the stock market.
The objectives are to reduce costs and improve their efficiency, according to union sources present at the negotiation, due to the fall in business margins after the drop in interest rates. For this reason, it has been specified that the “harmonization of working conditions” of both banks will be sought, but with an important caveat: that no more costs can be incurred than the current figure. That is, you cannot make a linear increase to those who earn the least to match it with those who receive the highest salary. The company has also clarified that it wants to establish geographical mobility to compensate the areas from which more employees leave.
Unions ask for voluntary departures
For the moment, the unions have disagreed with the initial approach. From the UGT it is requested that there be no forced departures and that all workers who are now on paid leave paid in Liberbank be taken into account so that they are included in these numbers.
The figure was released during the meeting this Tuesday, which is held after the establishment of the negotiating table by the Legal Representation of Workers (RLT) on September 28. The negotiation takes place after the merger of Unicaja Banco and Liberbank, which led to the creation of the fifth bank in the country, with a volume of assets close to 113,000 million, more than 4.5 million clients and some 1,400 branches.
According to the merger plan, the efficiency ratio will be around 50% and profitability will reach less than 6% in terms of profitability in 2023, while synergies will reach 192 million euros per year, fully from of 2023.
The CEO of Unicaja, Manuel Menéndez, said last week at a financial meeting held in Madrid that the assessment of the merger operation was “very positive” and that all the synergies foreseen in the initial moments were fulfilled, to which they add others related to costs.