Type
Internal restructuring
Country
European Union
Region
Location of affected unit(s)
Germany, Austria and Italy
Sector
Financial Services
Financial And Insurance Activities
Financial Service Activities, Except Insurance And Pension Funding
64.19 - Other monetary intermediation

8,000 jobs
Number of planned job losses
Job loss
Announcement Date
3 December 2019
Employment effect (start)
1 January 2020
Foreseen end date
31 December 2023

Description

The Italian bank Unicredit has announced 8,000 redundancies in the EU mostly in Italy with the closure of around 450 branches and 5,500 job cuts by 2023. The announced redundancies are part of the company's broader 2019-2023 strategic plan, which will be strongly focused on containing costs, especially labour costs, and maximising shareholder value. The redundancies will be mostly concentrated in Germany, Austria and Italy. 

The company argued it will act in a socially responsible way, but the trade unions deemed the plan as completely unacceptable. The General Secretary of First Cisl commented that the restructructuring completely disregards the sacrifices that employees have made in recent years and which helped the bank to overcome difficult times. In 2015, Unicredit has already cut 12,200 positions worldwide. In 2011, the group cut 7,290 positions in the EU (and recruited 1,135 people). Two previous restructuring are also recorded in the ERM Database, in 2006 (6,840 job cuts and 5,000 job creations in the EU) and 2008 (9,000 job cuts and 11,500 job creations worldwide).


Sources

Citation

Eurofound (2019), Unicredit, Internal restructuring in European Union, factsheet number 99495, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/99495.