The CGD Group Companies Employees’ Union (STEC) will refer wage negotiations with the state-owned bank to the Ministry of Labor given the lack of an agreement, saying Caixa has submitted proposals “above the banking sector.”
“In view of this position of the CGD administration, which is an attack on the dignity of CGD workers and an insult to their intelligence, STEC has decided to transfer the negotiations to the Ministry of Labor, demanding that the conciliation phase be initiated at the General Directorate of Employment and Labor Relations (DGERT), expecting that at least there the rules of negotiations and common sense will be respected and observed,” the union said in a statement released this Monday.
An official CGD source contacted by Lusa “notes that STEC decided to resort to an alternative form of negotiation when the meetings continued, with the aim of renegotiating the salaries of Caixa employees.”
STEC said in a statement that it took this decision after eight negotiation meetings and after the CGD said that the latest proposal for the 2024 wage agreement presented by the union was a 4.1% increase, a minimum of €79, and renewal of seniority payments has been frozen for five years. years ago – “represented an unaffordable cost” and “cast doubt on the financial stability” of the bank.
“How can one imagine that STEC will continue negotiations after hearing this?” asks the union, arguing that CGD “does not want to negotiate” and “just wants to impose.”
In turn, Caixa recalls that in February it proposed a 3% increase to the minimum of 52.63 euros, emphasizing that this increase was “higher than what was later agreed by the sector with other unions.”
“In the negotiations with STEC, Caixa has already presented excellent proposals for renewal, remaining above the Portuguese banking sector,” he emphasizes.
However, for the union, after achieving “historic and unimaginable profits,” the public bank administration “forgets and devalues the sacrifice of the workers who achieved them, intending only to obtain even higher profits, raising goals to be achieved and enjoy self-aggrandizement.”
“When it comes to negotiations on working conditions, wages or social measures, the administration that runs CGD sets its own conditions from the very beginning, “pretends” to negotiate and, frankly, ignores everything and everyone… it doesn’t happen like that, leave it,” he accuses.
CGD recalls that “it negotiated directly with STEC” in a total of eight meetings that have already been held, and “even after that union planned a strike for March 1 in the middle of the negotiation process.”
“The global remuneration proposal for 2024 reflects Caixa’s recognition of the contribution of its employees to the results achieved, Caixa’s competitive position and the very favorable pension and health benefits conditions compared to its competitors,” the bank said.
Assuring that it “retains the goal, as in other years, to reach an agreement on the renewal of wages”, CGD, however, emphasizes that “it will continue to be managed at a professional level” and “to compete with other banks, as a Portuguese state-owned bank capital, sustainable, meritocracy-oriented and without requiring additional effort from Portuguese taxpayers.”
STEC counters that CGD decided to close branches and transfer its clients to others, “but without adequate compensation in the form of staff, forcing workers to perform thousands of hours of unpaid overtime.”
At the same time, “agencies called ‘SMART’ are opening, the concept of which is to replace workers with machines, without a treasury, with a shortage of personnel and without any concern for the needs of the population,” he says.
The union also claims that Caixa is “insensitized to the growing and serious cases of burnout and the multiple sick days that result from it,” offering “better wage conditions to those who rejoin the union than those who worked at CGD years ago” and appears to be intent on “calling into question the existence of the bank’s social services.”
For STEC, this year’s wage update should “match the increased productivity of CGD workers” and allow workers to “regain some of the purchasing power lost in recent years.”