The banking employers' association AEB and the unions UGT, CC OO and FINE unsuccessfully closed a new meeting in which they tried to agree on salary increases for the next three years of the collective agreement. The negotiation has broken down, according to sources familiar with the conversations, who confirm the 24-hour strike this Friday, which will coincide with the general meeting of Santander shareholders. The Spanish Banking Association (AEB) – representing entities such as Santander, BBVA and Sabadell, among others – has improved its proposal by one percentage point, but this progress has been insufficient for the workers' representatives. The unions asked for an increase of 12%-13% in three years, while the entities have only reached 10% in four years. Both parties give each other a month until the next meeting.
The disagreement contrasts with the agreements reached in recent weeks between the unions and CECA, the employers' association of the former savings banks, and UNACC, of the credit cooperatives. “AEB and its associated banks do not accept our latest joint proposal, despite being in the context of the pre-agreements reached in savings and credit cooperatives,” the unions highlight in a joint statement. Regarding the strike called for this Friday, March 22, it is the first 24-hour strike by bank employees due to the lack of agreement on the agreement since 1990, according to union sources. “The AEB has been left alone. It is a lack of responsibility and support for their staff,” said Elena Díaz, president of FINE.
The lack of agreement focuses on the salary increase, although the distance between both parties also reaches measures to redirect the work environment of workers in the sector. “We jointly call for massive participation in the strike this Friday by the staff of Banco Santander, BBVA, Sabadell, Bankinter, Deutsche Bank and the rest of the companies in the sector, to send their companies a resounding message: That we deserve an agreement at least at the level of what has been signed in other areas of the financial sector,” the unions ask in their statement.
In this context, negotiations between employers and unions are underway to close their new sectoral agreement that affects 80,000 banking employees. An agreement in which the workers' representatives want to achieve a greater salary increase, even more so after the sweet moment of results and benefits in the sector. “We regret that they have rejected this proposal, leading us to conflict and maintaining positions that continue to be very far from the benefits of the sector, the increase in remuneration of senior management and, above all, from what their workers demand and deserve,” he says. the note.
The unions, at this Thursday's meeting, have demanded a consolidated minimum wage increase in three years of 13%. “As an alternative option, a consolidated increase in tables in those three years of 12%, plus a single payment of 3% in 2024 that is not compensable or absorbable,” the note states. In addition, they have added an additional increase based on the CPI of up to 3% consolidated in tables at the end of the period, similar to what was agreed with the CECA, and an additional day of vacation to go from 24 to 25 days a year.
The pact reached with the association of the old savings banks, among which are CaixaBank, Unicaja, Abanca and Ibercaja, among others, includes a salary increase of 11% in three years (5% in 2024, 3% more in 2025 and another 3% in 2026), to which a single payment of 1,000 euros will have to be added in this year. The AEB, for its part, has offered 10% in four years, one point more than what was proposed in the previous meeting. Specifically, it is an increase of 3.5% in 2024, 2.75% in 2025, 2% in 2026 and another 1.75% in 2027, plus 2% depending on the evolution of inflation. . That is, still far from the 12%-13% that the unions demand in three years.
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