DESPITE THE RUMORS UniCredit says it is not planning any collective layoffs

The representatives of UniCredit Ţiriac Bank have announced that the lender is not considering any collective restructurings, in the near future, nor is it currently conducting any such process, even though rumors have been making the rounds through the industry lately.

Sources in the industry claim that the institution is getting ready to lay off a considerable number of employees this year, in order to reduce employee expenses.

Moreover, the unionists of UniCre­dit are saying that the bank is refusing dialog and that it does not comply with the legislation on social dialog, meaning that it does not inform them about the layoff plans.

The officials of the bank deny these allegations: "We are a profitable and efficient bank, we are making continuous and sustained efforts, especially so over the last few years to perform optimally ".

"Thus, UniCredit Ţiriac Bank continues the development of business areas, and has significantly increased the volume of financing granted, as well as that of the deposits attracted from customers and we are constantly trying to understand and serve the needs of our customers as well as possible ".

UniCredit has relocated the retail, corporate and leasing operations in just one building, where possible, and has shuttered several small branches, which were unprofitable due to their placement in areas of low traffic, the bank's officials also said.

They went on to say: "We are also constantly assessing the performance of our branches, based on the results seen within a relevant time frame, in order to make the best decision, which can go from keeping them, relocating them to areas which are better for business, closing them down or even opening new units, in cities with a higher potential. In the event of a restructured branch, their employees were always offered the option to continue their activity within UniCredit, on similar or different positions".

• The unions complain about the bank's refusal to cooperate

Constantin Paraschiv, the president of the Federation of Unions in the Insurance and Banking Industry (FSAB), said that the officials of the bank refuse to talk to the employees' unions, which is why the union has no knowledge of any possible layoffs. "UniCredit Ţiriac is the only bank in Romania that does not comply with the legislation on social dialog, by not informing the unions within the legally required deadline of 60 days about the measures it intends to take and which concern them, and refuses to sign the collective labor contract", he said.

In response, the representatives of the lender have said that they comply with all the provisions of the legislation in effect concerning the dialog with the unions and have a constructive relationship with the employees' union, and that the bank has held periodic information and consultation meetings with the union since the beginning. The latest such meeting was held in February. "Furthermore, in some of our meetings of 2011 and 2012 were also attended by representatives of the Federation of Unions in the Insurance and Banking Industry", they said.

As for the signing of the collective labor contract, the officials of UniCredit Ţiriac Bank say that its negotiations have not yet been initiated, due to the fact that the union did not have enough members (ed. note: the number of members should be 50%+1 of the total number of employees), and the representatives of the employee union were aware of this.

Last year, over 4,000 employees were laid off in the banking system. 322 units were also shut down. The largest number of layoffs (1,600 people) was announced by BCR.