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UNI Global Union is a Global Union Federation that represents over 20 million workers and 900 national unions around the world. A meeting of 16 Caribbean UNI affiliates was held with the General Secretary of UNI Global Union, Philip Jennings, and the Regional Secretary of the Americas, Adriana Rosenzvaig, on the 8th and 9th of August 2013 in Antigua & Barbuda. UNI Global Union and their Caribbean affiliates who represent RBC’s staff have the following concerns with relation to the bank’s business model that is being implemented in the region.



1. The bank’s staff feel constantly under pressure due to RBC’s unrealistic targets. Our members, the bank’s staff, wish to listen to customers, meet their needs and exceed their expectations. The bank’s targets force staff to push debt and other products that they do not need or want on to the public. It is wrong to incentivize debt and other financial products on our communities through staff targets.



2. If staff do not meet the bank’s targets, they receive performance management and can loose their jobs. Performance management is a tool that should not be used to intimidate and bully staff who do not meet the bank’s ever increasing unrealistic targets for debt and other financial services.



3. It appears that the bank has cut resources for staff development. This significantly undermines employees’ ability to do the job they were employed to do. The lack of staff development and training in the bank is a major issue given RBC’s extensive use of performance management.



4. The bank is constantly restructuring its operations throughout the Caribbean. We believe that the restructuring has to do with the RBC’s desire to cut full-time staff, which affects employees’ ability to deliver quality service. The staff reductions also mean fewer jobs for local communities.



5. RBC appears to have a policy of limiting staff’s freedoms and rights to choose to join a trade union. This right is recognized in law throughout the Caribbean, and through International Labor Organization conventions. We call on the bank to respect these rights, and not interfere with staff exercising their choice to join a union.



We believe that constant cost cutting, restructuring and excessive targets are negatively affecting the public, staff and the bank’s long-term business interests. We call on the bank to desist from these practices, and work with staff and their unions on a sustainable business model that works for employees and meets customers’ needs.



As related file find the original letter.