Type
Internal restructuring
Country
Spain
Region
Location of affected unit(s)
Sector
Financial Services
Financial And Insurance Activities
Financial Service Activities, Except Insurance And Pension Funding
64.11 - Central banking

431 jobs
Number of planned job losses
Job loss
Announcement Date
8 April 2016
Employment effect (start)
Foreseen end date

Description

The Spanish bank Caixabank has presented the trade unions with a voluntary early retirement plan for 500 workers older than 57 years. The plan aims to allow the company to adjust and reduce its workforce in a non-traumatic way. The company has not yet specified the exact terms and conditions that will be offered to workers in regards to this early retirement. The company also applied a collective dismissal affecting 750 workers in 2015. This case was reported by the European Restructuring Monitor in 2015. During the planning stages of the previous round of restructuring, it was agreed that an early retirement plan may be the most positive way to proceed with restructuring in the future, and this plan is now being initiated. 

Update 16/09/2016: 431 employees of Caixabank have applied to the voluntary early retirement plan agreed with the trade unions (SEPCB and CCOO). The plan envisages four alternatives:

  • Termination of the contract with Caixabank followed by outplacement in other companies of the group "la Caixa. The payment redundancy is 35 days per year worked with a maximum of 24 months, plus a bonus for seniority (between 10,000 and 20,000 euros),
  • voluntary leave (only for workers with at least 6 years of seniority). The payment redundancy is 45 days per year worked, with a maximum of 36 months,  plus a bonus of seniority (between 25,000 and 60,000 euros),
  • temporary leave from 3 to 5 years, with a compensation of 30% of salary, and
  • voluntary leave (only for employees born between 1959 and 1962), with a monthly compensation of 66%-70% of salary (depending on age) until the employee is 63 years old, plus a seniority bonus up to 9,000 euros.

The majority of applicants have chosen the two last options.

According to Caixabank, the plan only covers 39% of the overstaff in the company, which is estimated in 1,119 employees.


Sources

  • 8 April 2016: ABC
  • 16 September 2016: ABC
  • 16 September 2016: 5 Dias

Citation

Eurofound (2016), Caixabank, Internal restructuring in Spain, factsheet number 87148, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/87148.