News

UBS announced today that it will cut 10,000 jobs: 16% of its 64,000 workforce. UBS management aims to save 3.4 billion CHF by making the job cuts. UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti said the decision had been a difficult one because UBS’s business “was all about its people.”



In response Philip Jennings, UNI Global Union General Secretary, questioned the cynical timing of the announcement as UBS is embroiled in difficult legal cases from fraudulent trading to the Libor scandal. Jennings said, “Clearly Mr Ermotti has decided that UBS’s “people” are a disposable commodity. Of all the options open to UBS this is the most extreme in human terms and will fail to divert attention from other scandals. We are not talking about ‘highflyers’ here but ordinary banking staff who make the wheels of the business turn. They are the victims of a business strategy that went wrong. If Mr Ermotti is serious about UBS being built on its people he would re-integrate them into real banking activities that supports the real economy. What we’ve seen today is a panic measure taken to appease disgruntled shareholders and add to customers’ woes.”



Marcio Morzane, Head of UNI Finance said, “UBS’s decision to lay off 10,000 workers adds to the misery of bank workers. Since 2008, workers have been put under tremendous pressure so that the banks they serve can continue to make quick short-term profits. We have seen the results for the industry. More than 300, 000 jobs have been lost in Finance since the start of the crisis. UNI Finance will highlight the UBS case as an example of how regulatory issues affect workers’ conditions and why it is important that unions are involved in the discussions when we meet with Michel Barnier, the European Union Commissioner for Regulation, in Brussels tomorrow. The UBS case raises questions for the regulators. The separation of real banking from investment banking has consequences for jobs. The social consequences of regulatory change need to be looked at.”



The timing of the announcement looks like a cynical move by UBS to try and distract attention away from the London trial of its trader Kweku Adoboli accused of unauthorised trading that caused $2.3bn of losses. Adoboli has told the court how he and another young inexperienced trader were allowed by the UBS to trade a $50bn book. UBS is also a subject of the Libor scandal investigation.