Intesa Sanpaolo, Abi and more. This is how the Italian banking sector will be revolutionized
Mps, Intesa Sanpaolo, Abi, contract, mergers and organizational changes: all the news in the pipeline for banks
The (temporary?) revocation of ABI 's trade union mandate byIntesa Sanpaolo was the real surprise in recent months. It is the move that has agitated the Italian banking sector and beyond: the issue is also being watched by the entire Italian working world because it is a relevant precedent from a legal and also a political-unionist point of view, therefore capable of opening similar fronts in other sectors. Intesa Sanpaolo's decision came as a bolt from the blue for some, while the "more experienced" in the sector were expecting it at any moment: there is too much turbulence between banking groups in terms of competition not to expect a move such, from any bank within Abi. While the negotiations for the renewal of the national collective labor agreement were about to start, which expired in December and then extended several times until next July 31st, which affects over 280,000 employees of the credit institutions, the Intesa torpedo arrived.
INTESA SANPAOLO'S CHOICE TOWARDS ABI
The choice of the leading credit group in the country, formalized with a letter on February 27, is equivalent to a political distancing from the ABI. However, over the past few weeks, when prudence has taken over, the picture has at least partially changed: the radars of insiders have picked up, for example, strong signals of relaxation and rapprochement between the members of the presidency committee of Abi. A much more serene climate that would be confirmed, according to well-informed sources, by the great cordiality registered between Abi's number one, Antonio Patuelli, both with the president of Intesa, Gianmaria Gros Pietro, and with the group's chief operating officer, Paola Angeletti . A breakthrough? It is not certain, also because in Ca' de Sass everything, absolutely everything, depends on the decisions of its leader, Carlo Messina, who can upset the field at any moment. It is he, only he, who will decide whether to change course or not, whether to intervene or not.
“PERMANENT INVITATION”?
However, let us try to analyze the situation from a political point of view and from the point of view of relations and the respective political weight that banks and unions have within the sector. The aspect that arouses one of the greatest curiosity is that from a contractual legal point of view: this "permanent invitation" to participate in the negotiating table, those for the renewal of the national collective labor agreement, which the ABI has agreed with Intesa, at the same time as the revocation of the trade union mandate. A decision that has no precedents, but which could make it possible to rebuild a more serene climate within the sector.
Given that the real negotiations will start in early July, many are wondering what the reaction of the other banks remaining in the Abi trade union committee will be and, above all, how the unions will behave. For example, in the last meeting of the unions held a few days ago in Rome, Fabi intervened with some national secretaries, but its leader, Lando Maria Sileoni, remained unexpectedly silent, perhaps because he is waiting for the national congress on 12 June to come out.
WILL THE BANKS UNION POT ITS FEET?
In short, one wonders if the union "table" as a whole will passively accept this situation or if someone will try to put their foot down. In the legal field, there are those who risk the possibility of studying the case for the formalization of a possible procedure aimed at ascertaining anti-union conduct, as established by the Workers' Statute (article 28). The point is the following: a collective agreement is signed by union organizations and by collective bodies representing employers, which is why the anomalous presence of a single company at the union table ("permanent invitation") violates the freedom of the union. This is because his presence, intended to influence the negotiation and not just to observe, is extraneous, in terms of law, to a collective context. Not only. The presence of a bank alongside the ABI distorts the role of the trade association itself. And even the choice of the Abi, according to experts in the sector, could be evaluated for the purposes of anti-unionism.
The premise, it must be said, is that we are dealing with a new situation, in fact without identical precedents that help to at least define the boundaries of this affair. And there are various aspects to take into consideration, starting with the fact that the presence, without a mandate of representation, of Intesa's representatives at the negotiating table could lead to the signing of an unprecedented multilateral (or multiple-individual) contract and not a actual collective agreement. To the point that all banks could leave Abi and sign individually, but at that point there would be the risk of leaving the constitutional perimeter which explicitly refers to collective agreements. So, at least, the most accredited labor lawyers think.
POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCES FOR EMPLOYEES
Other arguments are made in relation to the entirely theoretical hypothesis of the definitive exit of any bank from the ABI and the consequences for all its employees. Should this happen, one wonders about the effects that the employees of that group could suffer, in the presence, however, of an individual employment contract which expressly refers to the national Abi contract. Not only. Upon expiry of the old contract and if the new one is not renewed, the bank could decide to apply the old one "in extension", at least for the regulatory part, while it could agree with the company unions only the economic part in the "one-off" logic .
There are two significant elements: the association statute, which obliges the banks to apply the contracts signed by the ABI in representation of the associates, and the individual employment contract. In particular, if the employment contracts contain an express reference to the sector contract, the bank would remain bound to apply it both in the event it were renewed by the Abi trade union committee without its delegation, and in the event it formalized the exit from Abi. Everything, therefore, depends on the clauses of the individual employment contracts. Precisely for this reason, one false move by a bank would open the scenario of one lawsuit after another that would drag the sector into chaos.
Given how things stand, the risk of confusion is just around the corner and, above all, the prospect of having to manage tens of thousands of individual lawsuits which would inevitably arise in the event that an employee with an Abi contract were to apply a contract is not too remote. collective different from the one institutionalized at the time of his recruitment. In short, can a bank remain without a national contract and replicate the Fiat/Marchionne model with a sector contract? Or should he opt for membership in a different employers' association, such as Confindustria or Confcommercio? The answer is very simple: no bank can be left without a national contract unless it is aware of having to deal with, as mentioned, tens of thousands of individual lawsuits and the strong reactions of the union. This is the picture at the moment, but it is likely to change in the coming weeks. In fact, the workers' assemblies have just started, called to approve the platform of demands, which should end in June and the outcome of the same will certainly give the union a very strong mandate. At the end of the meetings, scheduled for the end of June, it is probable that a couple of meetings will be set up between the ABI and the unions, both for the month of July, along the lines of the previous negotiations of national contracts.
THE MPS FILE
The renewal of the employment contract, however, is not the only relevant dossier in the banking world. The coming months, in fact, will be decisive for aggregations in the sector. The first knot to solve remains the future of Monte dei Paschi di Siena: by 2024 the Treasury must place its 64% of the oldest bank in the world on the market, but at the moment no Italian or foreign player seems interested. On the contrary. On the contrary, in the last few days, the Ministry of the Economy has received estimates from the main groups in the country: "no, thank you". Some believe that, in the light of MPS's excellent results following Luigi Lovaglio's treatment, the European Central Bank could review the privatization calendar, allowing more time and leaving the bank autonomous beyond the deadline also agreed with the European Union. In the absence of second thoughts, the government will inevitably have to find a buyer and it is probable that the path of the "stew" will be explored with the necessary involvement of all the big credits. Once Montepaschi's path has been defined, the other operations could also be clearer in the chain: on the risk chessboard there is a bit of everyone, from BancoBpm to Bper, from Unicredit to Intesa.
MERGER AND ACQUISITION CHAPTER
In the context of the articulated corporate maneuvers in the coming months, with chain transactions that will unfold throughout 2024, the national agreement will be central not only to all the organizational changes resulting from mergers and acquisitions, but will highlight which banks will be qualitatively better from management point of view, the most virtuous ones, those that will be able to guarantee the best dividends to their shareholders and above all those that will excel in the next five years. At stake, then, there are also issues concerning bank employees such as smart working, digital technology, artificial intelligence, new agency models. But the real stake will be represented by who will have numbers and results to excel within the sector, where for years, the managing director of Intesa, Carlo Messina, has been alone at the top of the standings.
In short, we will witness a strategic and operational revolution that will be based above all on the national contract and the outcome of the same will be decisive for facilitating or complicating relations in individual banking groups and companies between the unions themselves and their counterparts. The latter aspect has not escaped the trade union organisations, so much so that the platform developed by Fabi, First Cisl, Fisac Cgil, Uilca and Unisin is the most relevant in the last 20 years. And the topics chosen by the union have in fact displaced and momentarily put Abi herself in a corner, who could soon make her claims known.
BANKS MUST CONSIDER AN OPPORTUNITY
In this context, the banks will have to evaluate an opportunity: to say yes to all the economic requests (435 euro on average per month increase, to be spread over the entire duration of the new contract) resulting from the recovery of inflation and the new-found profitability of the banks, obtaining in exchange, greater flexibility on internal organizational issues of individual companies such as the question of classifications, smart working, the use of part-time work, the transformation of agencies also into online branches. In short, the simplification of the national contract necessary to concretely manage all the organizational changes that banking groups will have to face in the coming years will be needed. But if a solution could be found on the contractual arrangements, the matter on the economic side is more complex: this is because the increase of 435 euros appears to be digestible, financially, by the big banks, a little less, however, by the smaller companies in the sector despite all-time high year-end earnings records have been achieved. Beyond the differences on the employers' front, the economic demand of the unions will be difficult to resize, especially if one takes into account the mega salaries of some top managers, the high dividends distributed to shareholders that cannot be justified in any way, not even with the important results of balance sheet obtained.
THE ROLE OF THE ABI TRADE UNION COMMITTEE
The delicate matter will be managed by the president of the Abi trade union committee, Ilaria Dalla Riva, registered by Unicredit, who is bringing the whole affair into focus. The successful outcome of the negotiations does not appear to be jeopardized if everything is tackled with mutual responsibility. The fact is that if the negotiation gets off to a good start, the signature could arrive within the year or so. One wonders, in the sector, which aspects will be truly decisive. If common sense prevails, the contract will be concluded in a reasonable time, starting however from a fact that no one can dispute that within Abi, Intesa has a decisive political weight; while on the trade union front, the most important role, on a political level, is above all that of Fabi, the first acronym of the sector also in terms of representation.
IN THE HANDS OF INTESA SANPAOLO AND FABI
Therefore, it will not escape anyone that the fate of the national banking contract is above all in the hands of Intesa and Fabi and that, if an agreement is not found, it is very likely that the category could take to the streets as already happened in 2015. If the intelligence, professionalism and foresight of all the players prevail, the contract will be made without too many problems. If, on the other hand, there are hitches, the banks will run the serious risk of losing face even with respect to the current government which, unlike the previous executives, fortunately, has no "loving relationship" with the banks themselves.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/settore-banche-cosa-cambia/ on Sat, 13 May 2023 05:53:38 +0000.