The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
Financial Services Financial And Insurance Activities Financial Service Activities, Except Insurance And Pension Funding 64.1 - Monetary intermediation
2,000 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
29 October 2020
Employment effect (start)
29 October 2020
Foreseen end date
31 December 2022
Description
Santander Bank Polska, a multinational commercial bank and financial services company and a subsidiary of the Spanish bank Santander, announced that it will cut up to 2,000 jobs throughout a collective dismissal programme at its units across Poland. The dismissal programme is expected to finish by the end of 2022. The programme will affect both employees at the headquarters and in distribution chain. The cost-saving and restructuring programme is related to the COVID-19 pandemic; the programme aims to save around €1 billion. Behind Santander's decision to reduce its employment capacity is also digitalisation of the banking sector and growing fiscal and regulatory burdens. The pandemic accelerated these changes. The management board informed that they were going to consult the dismissal process with the trade unions and to cooperate on the development of a protection package for dismissed employees.
In Poland, Santander has been operating since 2006. Currently, it employs about 10,500 people across the country.
A previous restructuring programme was announced in January 2019 (1,400 jobs cut).
Eurofound (2020), Santander Bank Polska, Internal restructuring in Poland, factsheet number 102432, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/102432.
Digitisation and automation technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), can affect working conditions in a variety of ways and their use in the workplace raises a host of new ethical concerns.
The retail banking sector is fertile ground for studying the impacts of digitalisation on work and employment. Financial services are increasingly provided online, without the intermediary of customer-facing institutions.
European labour markets have recovered strongly from COVID-19. By the end of 2021, little more than 18 months after the start of the pandemic, employment rates in the EU were almost at pre-crisis levels.
