BBVA headquarters in Madrid, known as 'La Vela' Luis Sevillano
BBVA has communicated to the unions and employees in Spain "the will to initiate a collective dismissal procedure in Spain, which will affect both the central services and the commercial network."
To do this, it has summoned the legal representation of the workers for a first meeting on April 16.
Since the beginning of the year, reports from analysts and news have been published in the media that numbered 3,000 people possibly affected by this ERE, which represents approximately 10% of the workforce.
The bank has not provided the figure to unions at the moment.
In 2020 and at the beginning of this year, it denied that it needed to reduce its workforce to adjust costs, but later, given the advance of digitization, the sale of its subsidiary in the United States with capital gains of 10,000 million and the fall in results was changing your public statements.
BBVA earns 1,305 million in 2020, 63% less, due to the provisions made by the pandemic
BBVA rules out carrying out an ERE or ERTE in the face of the current coronavirus crisis
"Huge competitive pressure"
The entity chaired by Carlos Torres assures that its "objective is to jointly explore formulas that allow minimizing the impact on the workforce".
And he justifies it by saying that the banking sector "is in a context of profound transformation marked by enormous competitive pressure, low interest rates, the accelerated adoption of digital channels by customers and the entry of new digital players."
BBVA considers that this is the way to guarantee "the competitiveness and sustainability of employment in the future".
And he adds: "So it is essential to continue working even more decisively to reduce our cost structure."
"At BBVA we approach this process with an attitude of dialogue, with the commitment to be guided by criteria of objectivity and with the desire to reach the best possible agreement for everyone," he adds in the note addressed to the staff.
Finally, it ensures that it will keep employees informed about milestones and agreements reached, "always preserving respect for the negotiating process" that has just begun.
