After lengthy negotiations, a new four-year collective agreement for the banking sector was concluded in October 1999 by the AEB employers' association and the CC.OO and UGT trade unions. The key issue in bargaining was working time, and the final deal represents a compromise between the positions of the two unions, as well as between those of employers and unions.
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After lengthy negotiations, a new four-year collective agreement for the banking sector was concluded in October 1999 by the AEB employers' association and the CC.OO and UGT trade unions. The key issue in bargaining was working time, and the final deal represents a compromise between the positions of the two unions, as well as between those of employers and unions.
A new four-year collective agreement for the banking sector (1999-2002) was concluded in October 1999, following nine months of negotiations, by the CC.OO and UGT trade unions and the AEB employers' association. The main point of disagreement had focused on working time. The main unions both wanted the banks to close on Saturday mornings, but they differed in what should be offered in exchange: for CC.OO, it could be either working one afternoon a week or a split shift every day of the week; UGT wanted a substantial reduction in the number of Saturdays worked, maintaining continuous working through the day for most of the workforce and opening one afternoon a week. The employers had long rejected this proposal to close on Saturdays because it would involve a loss of competitiveness against the savings banks, which also open on Saturdays, the day chosen by many clients to carry out their bank transactions.
The main differences between the trade unions stemmed from an earlier draft company agreement reached between CC.OO and Deutsche Bank (ES9901295F) which provided for Saturday closing in exchange for extending the working day to 17.00 on the other days of the week. UGT's opposition to this agreement was so great that it took the matter to the courts.
Alongside its provisions on other matters, the agreement that has finally been reached for the banking sector provides that a split shift will apply only to those employees who are already affected - 25% of the workforce - though from the end of May to the end of September they will work a continuous working day (08.00 to 15.00). The banks will close on Saturdays between 1 April and 30 September, one month longer than was the case up to now. The workers also gain two extra days' leave. The maximum number of annual working hours will thus be 1,704 in the year 2000, 1,702 in 2001 and 1,700 in 2002.
The deal essentially means a reduction in the total number of hours worked and six more days per year that will not be working days. The agreement includes no measures on job creation to make up for the reduction in working hours, though recently the trade unions have frequently claimed that more than 20 million hours of overtime are worked in the sector every year (ES9907141F), often unpaid.
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Eurofound (1999), Collective agreement signed in banking, article.
