Santander permanently closes 400 offices this year and 150 more are only open two days a week

A branch of Banco Santander, in Barcelona.Reuters

Santander has begun a restructuring of its network of offices in Spain, which has accelerated since the declaration of the state of alarm over the pandemic.

The entity has closed 400 offices, 13% of the total, while another 150 more only open them two days a week.

This operation has not led to layoffs, but yesterday the bank met with the unions and began the procedures for an ERE that could exceed 2,000 workers exits.

Employee representatives have called for flexibility and non-traumatic processes.

The crisis, technological advances and the pandemic have accelerated the lack of use of offices by clients.

Santander sources admit that there is a lack of use of the branches at the moment and that the bank is changing the model towards larger offices, with more employees and focused on product advice.

This situation has led to the closing of 400 branches and leaving another 150 intermittent, about 550 in total, which represents 18% of the bank's network in Spain.

Union sources indicate that these are closures related to the covid, the search for profitability, problems of shortage of clients and that some offices were duplicated since the purchase of Banco Popular, in June 2017. For one reason or another, around of half a thousand could be added to the closings of other exercises.

Between September 2020 and the same month of 2019, Santander has dispensed with 742 offices, 20% of the total.

This year it aspires to consolidate these closures, but all this happens to reduce staff.

One ERE for all work centers

For this reason, yesterday Santander formally launched the start of the employment regulation file (ERE) in Spain.

This was communicated to the unions to whom he explained that the layoffs will affect "all work centers": commercial network, central services and corporate center.

They also said they would include physical and functional mobility.

The bank has justified the future transformation and efficiency plan in economic, organizational and productive causes and without clarifying what the specific impact will be in terms of employment, as detailed by the unions at the end of the meeting.

Workers' representatives look forward to meeting you at their next meeting on November 6.

Santander has exposed the need to seek efficiencies and profitability and adapt to the restructuring of the sector, while being obliged to invest more in technologies and transform structures.

DC.

OO indicated that it has insisted to the bank that any adjustments that are addressed take place "through internal flexibility measures and in any case through non-traumatic processes that respect" the rights of a staff that has contributed "with their efforts to position Santander as a leading company ”.

The UGT demanded that the employees not be the ones who bear "the highest cost in all these processes" and reproached the president, Ana Botín, for saying that there would be no layoffs while the state of alarm lasted.