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The strike, the first since the 2007 merger, was announced on June 19^th by Italian UNI Finance affiliated unions, after a confrontation with the company lasted about one month.



Intesa Sanpaolo has said that it will not respect the agreement reached with the unions on July 29^th 2011, related to the Business Plan 2011-13, but it failed to introduce a new one.



The company also announced that it will unilaterally modify rules about mobility, the working hours in the branches and the heaquarters, flexibility, articulation of individual working time, part time jobs, suspension of work and reduced working hours. Intesa Sanpaolo also said it will not negotiate its collective agreements with the unions due to expire on June 30^th.



The company said its goal is to save 250 million euros, a reduction of costs already reached by the old Business Plan but now at risk due to the pension reform, which postpones the time of access to retirement and thus blocks 4,500 already planned retirements and fails to meet safeguards set in a decree issued by the Italian Welfare Minister Elsa Fornero.



"Once again the company has decided that only employees must pay for the costs of pension reform ad financial disorder. We consider this unacceptable, especially when management of Intesa Sanpaolo intended to reduce costs by destroying employees 'acquired rights,” said a spokesperson from Italian finance union Federazione Autonoma Bancari Italiani.