Banco Santander has once again collected some of the main requests from the unions and has asked the union representatives that employees over 50 who want to leave the entity and cannot benefit from early retirement as they are not 55 years old, can receive compensation in a single payment of up to 250,000 euros, and can benefit from the Social Security agreement.
This system was already used in the last ERE of the entity last year, when the Santander and Popular networks joined.
This new proposal is in addition to the one made two days ago to reduce the number of workers affected by the ERE to 3,800, compared to the 4,000 initially raised, and raised the number of employees that it plans to relocate to other positions to 1,200: 900 who would be transferred to a group company and 300 to Santander Personal, a division that serves customers remotely.
They are business managers.
As reported to this newspaper CC OO and UGT, majority unions, the bank has proposed that employees between 50 and 54 years of age can leave the entity with a compensation of 50% of their six-year salary, with a ceiling of 250,000 euros, and payment of 70% of the special agreement with Social Security.
The unions consider this proposal very low, since last year the compensation limit was six years for 60% of the salary, plus bonuses (which could amount to 30,000 euros), with a limit of 380,000 euros.
In addition, the bank is responsible for the payment of 70% of the Social Security contributions until the employee reaches 63 years of age, compared to the 100% that he promised to pay in the 2019 ERE.
The idea of the bank, according to these unions, is to first carry out the adjustment of the staff of the central services and the corporate center, which would conclude at the end of March, while the departures of the office personnel would last until mid July.
In this way, possibly in August the ERE would have already been executed and to advance in the process, the entity offers seniority bonuses to employees under 55 who leave the group, ranging from 4,000 euros for those with less seniority to five years, up to 25,000 euros for those who have been 15 years or more.
For each triennium they will also receive 1,500 euros.
The bank has promised to answer workers' requests within 10 days after the end of the voluntary membership periods.
CC OO and UGT value these advances, although they consider that they are still "far" from having a balance for an agreement and for that reason they will continue to demand the reduction of the perimeter of job destruction.
In addition, they consider that the severance offer for employees aged 50 to 54 is very low.
The bulk of the staff that will come out will be this age.
The unions have also requested that the lower age groups be taken into account for the relocations of employees and facilitate voluntary endorsements of the higher age groups to defend the greater employability of young people.
At the meeting this Thursday, Santander has also reported the opening of centers in different cities for the outsourcing of a part of the workforce, up to a total of 18.
UGT highlights that outsourcing will affect 99.9% of the branch network and not the central services.
The companies where office workers will be relocated are Santander Operations;
IST, which will become Santander Customer Voice and will deal with telephone banking and debt collection.
60% of the outsourced personnel will be associate and operational directors and 40% commercial managers, explains UGT, a union that also maintains that a large part of the affected personnel will be under 50 years of age.
When changing jobs, the employee is no longer subject to the banking agreement and has that of the receiving company, in some cases consulting, although he maintains his salary and seniority for all purposes, as well as benefits social.
