On 25 February 2003, several thousand Belgian banking employees demonstrated in Brussels in protest against employers' plans to outsource some activities, or parcel them out to subsidiaries. Negotiations over a new sectoral agreement had reached deadlock several weeks before. Against a backdrop of restructuring by the leading Belgian banks, the trade unions were concerned about a deterioration in workers’ pay and terms and conditions. The management played down these fears.
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On 25 February 2003, several thousand Belgian banking employees demonstrated in Brussels in protest against employers' plans to outsource some activities, or parcel them out to subsidiaries. Negotiations over a new sectoral agreement had reached deadlock several weeks before. Against a backdrop of restructuring by the leading Belgian banks, the trade unions were concerned about a deterioration in workers’ pay and terms and conditions. The management played down these fears.
On 25 February 2003, between 6,000 and 8,000 banking employees marched through the streets of Brussels following a call by a united front of trade unions in the sector, made up of:
the Belgian Union of White-Collar Staff, Technicians and Managers (Syndicat des Employés, Techniciens et Cadres de Belgique/Bond der Bedienden, Technici en Kaders van Belgïe, SETCa/BBTK) affiliated to the Belgian General Federation of Labour (Fédération Générale du Travail de Belgique/Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond, FGTB/ABVV);
the National Federation of White-Collar Workers (Centrale Nationale des Employés, CNE) affiliated to the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (Confédération des Syndicats Chrétiens/Algemeen Christelijk Vakverbond, CSC/ACV); and
the Federation of Liberal Trade Unions of Belgium (Centrale Générale des Syndicaux Libéraux de Belgique/Algemene Centrale der Liberale Vakbonden van België, CGSLB/ACLVB).
The demonstrators went to the head offices of the main financial institutions, including Dexia and Banque Bruxelles Lambert (BBL). Martine Lefèvre, a delegate from the Flemish wing of CGSLB/ACLVB summarised the unions' demands, explaining that the demonstrators did not want some of the activities of the largest Belgian banks to be sent out to subsidiaries: 'All activities must remain inside the banking sector. They must not disappear into other joint committees where pay and terms and conditions of employment would be seriously eroded.'
The dispute, which has led to an impasse in the negotiation of a new sectoral collective agreement for banking, centres on the competence of joint committees, the bodies within which such agreements are negotiated. According to the three trade unions, employers belonging to the Belgian Bankers' Association (Association Belge des Banques/ Belgische Vereniging van Banken, ABB/BVB) want to restrict the competence of joint committee 310 strictly to banking activities: support services such as information technology and personnel management would cease to come under 310, and would be transferred to other joint committees whose agreements are traditionally less generous in terms of pay and conditions. Such a change would go hand in hand with an increasingly powerful tendency in the banking sector to outsource and subcontract activities that are deemed to be subsidiary to the 'core business' of financial institutions.
ABB/BVB has stated that the 25 February demonstration will not change its attitude in any way. 'The banking sector', said an employers’ association press release, 'is not in the business of frantically concocting projects that involve sending work out to subsidiaries, which will end up clearing banks of their staff and their substance.' However, the employers' association reiterated its desire to extend discussions at intersectoral level to avoid any solutions introduced into the framework of the banking sector creating legal insecurity and interference in the sphere of activity of other joint committees. Lastly, ABB/BVB attacked the 'counter-truths' stated by the trade unions in the Belgian press which, according to the employers, created a 'totally disproportionate' climate of uncertainty among bank employees.
An official conciliator intervened in the dispute on 19 February in an attempt to reach an agreement between ABB/BVB and the unions. The conciliator's proposal sought to redefine the banking activities that fall within joint committee 310. It was rejected by the unions.
In recent months, the leading Belgian banks have been the focus of mergers and restructuring exercises, which have led to staff cuts: at Dexia, for example, 2,270 jobs out of around 9,150 will go by 2005; the workforce at BBL (part of the the ING Group) will fall from 10,900 to 10,150 over the next three years; over 1,000 people left Fortis Banque in 2002, reducing the total workforce to 19,525; and 650 people will leave Fortis's agencies in 2003.
Το Eurofound συνιστά την παραπομπή σε αυτή τη δημοσίευση με τον ακόλουθο τρόπο.
Eurofound (2003), Dispute in banking, article.
