News

The Head of UNI Finance, Oliver Roethig, congratulated DiCristo on his election and thanked the outgoing president, Andrea Bonansea from FISAC/Italy: “As the first president of the European works council, Andrea was key in bringing together colleagues from so many countries, not least from Central and Eastern Europe. UniCredit certainly has one of the best working EWCs. The achievements over the last year are a solid foundation for our further work, not least on a global framework agreement.”



The fourth plenary meeting of UniCredit European Works Council took place in Milan from 13 to 15 May.



Different matters were discussed during the plenary meeting, from sustainability report to people survey (among the UniCredit Group staff all over many different countries), from an overview on the macro-economic scenario to the Group’s financial situation.



A specific session focused on Central and Eastern Europe, where the Group has done significant investments and opened many branches.



After having signed in December a joint declaration on “Training, Learning and Professional Development”, on 14 May 2009 the EWC Select Committee and the Management signed a joint declaration on “Equal Opportunities and Non Discrimination”, that contains important principles and actions to be put in place, commonly, in order to avoid any kind of unfair practice in the Group.



The last session of the meeting was entirely dedicated to a restructuring of the Group’s Foreign Network of branches and representative Offices, regarding different countries worldwide. The restructuring will heavily affect workers of those branches.



The EWC expressed its disapproval on the restructuring as planned and invited the Management to review its strategy on Foreign Branches. Indeed, considering the tough situation, the EWC stressed that in any phase of the project:

• information must be granted to each country’s workers and workers’ representatives
• timeline is essential and must be disclosed
• international mobility must be granted to those workers who express their willingness
• minimum social standards must be granted, through outplacement and real opportunities of new (and decent) jobs
• social dialogue in each country must be granted with the aim of finding common, shared solutions for employees.

UNI Finance is working together with EWC Select Committee and its affiliates to establish a trade union alliance for UniCredit. This alliance is an essential element for engaging UniCredit in negotiations on a global framework agreement.



After the previous plenary meeting (October 2008), the select committee met four times with management, since in times of financial crisis with high turbulences and uncertainties constant dialogue was felt necessary by both sides.