Home » Business » “Ready to strike by the end of the year” – Corriere.it

“Ready to strike by the end of the year” – Corriere.it


Troubled waters at the BNL. The unions have declared the mobilization to the company and the 11,840 employees are preparing to go on strike before the end of the year. «The managing director Elena Goitini declares that the BNL is ready for the digital leap and therefore what does it do? Completely sells the Information Technology (IT) division. It seems a real contradiction to us, ”says Mauro Morelli, national secretary of Fabi. The bank records “excellent balance sheet results, even better than those of the top five Italian groups”. But if it doesn’t back down and withdraws its intention to sell the It business unit, in addition to the entire back-office, which would be divided into 7 small branches, the consequences would be “very serious”, the union fears. “This operation could jeopardize the employment stability of the entire group and would create a serious precedent for the entire sector,” denounces Morelli.


Overall, the sale involves 836 workers, of which 566 are back office employees. The Roman institute controlled by the French group Bnp Paribas, on Friday started the procedure for outsourcing also the IT branch (270 people), with a letter to the trade unions and for information to the ABI, the Italian Banking Association. The document was signed by Elena Goitini and Andrea Falleni, CEO of Capgemini Finance Tech Services Srl, the company that would acquire the digital division, changing its name in the coming months.



After bringing together the BNL workers in the assembly, in mixed mode, both in presence and remotely, on Tuesday the union sent a letter to the company and ABI to seek a conciliation, according to the procedures established by the credit sector and a meeting could take place as early as next week, even if on paper the positions seem irreconcilable.

«It is unacceptable that a group that has the ambition of becoming the third largest bank in Italy by profitability, as CEO Goitini says, then asks to expel about 900 workers, almost a tenth of its workforce. Redundancies and outsourcing have always been done in times of need. But BNL is not Carige or the Venetian banks or MPS. If you want to focus on digital and innovation, you need to make heavy investments, which Bnl obviously does not want to make, because they are too expensive. So it is cheaper to sell the business unit and then buy digital services on the market, ”says the union.

The company officially prefers not to comment or provide further details in view of the ongoing negotiations. But Goitini, in an interview with Courier service it was clear: «Where scale is needed, such as, for example, in IT, we want to develop partnerships, to accelerate and, at the same time, enhance people. Keeping up with our digital and human capital ». As if to say: it is better to outsource activities, transferring them to a major player in the sector, because staying on the technological frontier requires huge resources. In exchange, the personnel involved are guaranteed to keep the credit agreement and the acquired rights.

But the union is not enough. Also because it fears a progressive dismantling of the bank and the loss of its identity. Already in early 2021 40% of Bnl Finance, specialized in salary-backed loans, was sold to Poste Italiane, while the closing of the operation announced in June is expected by the end of the year to sell 80% of Axepta, a small payment company, to Worldline, which will lead to the exit of another 110 employees.

Now it’s up to the back office and IT. The guarantees offered by the company do not satisfy the trade unions. “These outsourced workers maintain the same credit agreement, so they cost about 30% more than the trade agreement that Cap Gemini employees typically have. The risk is to become an Indian reservation, ”they argue.

Employees are also worried. The most nervous are the workers of Naples, who after attending the shareholders’ meetings on Monday, invited “to proceed as soon as possible, in the same month of December, to call one or more strikes to demonstrate against this absurd company policy”.

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