The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
Financial Services Financial And Insurance Activities Financial Service Activities, Except Insurance And Pension Funding 64.19 - Other monetary intermediation
1,380 - 1,602 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
7 September 2021
Employment effect (start)
Foreseen end date
Description
Banco Sabadell, one of the largest banks in Spain, announced a collective redundancy plan affecting 1,936 employees (12.6% of the workforce). This redundancy plan also involves the closure of 496 offices throughout Spain (31% of its offices network). However, 176 of them will not be complete closures, but will be converted into a new model where ATMs and basic services will continue to operate, but opening only certain days. The bank claims structural causes and the need to reduce costs in order to generate more profits.
Banco Sabadell has also announced that it will prioritise voluntary departures, but if it does not cover the targeted 1,963 departures, other criteria will be applied to make redundancies. The bank has also excluded employees aged between 50 and 55, those older than 63 and senior management members from those potentially affected. In this way, the company has identified 13,346 employees who could potentially be affected by the adjustment plan.
The unions have rejected both the high number of people affected and the reasons claimed after the recent early retirement plan that affected 1,800 workers in the company.
Banco Sabadell also previously implemented a collective redundancy plan affecting 1,800 employees (11% of the workforce) in November 2020.
Update 22/09/2021:Sabadell has offered early retirement plans for affected employees aged between 56 and 62 with up to 55% of annual salary until the age of 63. According to CCOO union, Sabadell is offering workers aged between 56 and 57 to take early retirement with 50% of their salary until they reach the age of 62. The unions again reject the bank's conditions and maintain the mobilisations called in eight cities.
Update 15/11/2021:Banco Sabadell and the unions have reached an agreement for the last collective layoff plan announced in 2021. This agreement reduces the number of affected employees to 1380 (556 less than initially planned). All these layoffs had to be voluntary. Otherwise, the number of layoffs would increase to 1602. In any case, the bank has received almost 2,000 requests for voluntary leaves within the collective dismissal plan. The agreement also includes early retirements for those affected who are older than 54 years and have at least 10 years of seniority in the bank, receiving compensation of 65% of the annual salary. Those under 55 years of age will be entitled to a compensation of 40 days per year worked with a maximum of 30 monthly payments. In addition, those affected with less than five years of seniority will have bonuses from €5,000 and up to €25,000 for those with more than 15 years in the company.
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The retail banking sector is fertile ground for studying the impacts of digitalisation on work and employment. Financial services are increasingly provided online, without the intermediary of customer-facing institutions.
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