Banca Popolare di Vicenza

300 jobs
Number of planned job losses

200 jobs
Number of planned job creations

Announcement Date

30 September 2015

Employment effect (start)

1 January 2016

Foreseen end date

Description

Banca Popolare di Vicenza, an Italian commercial banking group, is to dismiss 300 employees and to hire about 200 new workers by 2020. The group is active in most of the Italian regions, with a more capillary presence in Northern regions (namely in Veneto, Lumbardy and Friuli Venezia Giulia), as well as in Tuscany, Lazio and Sicily.

According to the 2015-2020 Industrial plan, the group is to change its corporate form cooperative to a joint-stock company and move toward the hub & spoke service model. This will result in the reduction of the number of branches to 403, down from the current 653 and the extension of home banking services and advisory services. In addition, the group plans to outsource activities with low added value and to review its administrative costs.

The 300 redundant workers are expected to leave the banking group as of early 2016, while another 275 job losses will occur at a later stage, as of January 2020. All the dismissals will be implemented on a voluntary basis. In addition, the group announced the intention to hire about 200 workers in audit, risk management and monitoring activities.

Unions are sceptical about the new plan, complaining that the reduction of personnel will led to heavier workload and and fewer services provided to customers. In relation to the recruitment, unions asked to give priority to fixed-term staff holding similar positions as entailed by law. In addition, unions complain about the decision to charge workers with the costs of managerial misconduct. High-level administrators and managers of the group have been placed under investigation over alleged stock manipulation and obstruction of regulatory authorities.

Sources

• 30 September 2015: Rai News
• 30 September 2015: Banca Popolare di Vicenza - press release
• 1 October 2015: B@nconote