UGT asks Santander to "lead" the salary improvement for banking in the framework of the meetings with the AEB

MADRID, 11 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

UGT has asked the management of Banco Santander in Spain to "lead" the rise in wages within the framework of the sectoral observatory between unions and the Spanish Banking Association (AEB), where the situation of the banking sector in the current scenario of high inflation, as they have transferred to Europa Press in union sources.

The union organization has stated that this request has already been forwarded to the bank's CEO in Spain, Antonio Simoes, with whom he held a bilateral meeting a few weeks before the start of the summer and prior to the wage increases that the entity would have already applied in other geographies, such as the United Kingdom.

For UGT, "it is sad" the "discriminatory" treatment that at group level "suffer" those countries "in which the increase has not been carried out", although it recognizes that in Spain these requests have been made at a sectoral level before the bank employer associations AEB and CECA.

However, UGT maintains that Santander is "reluctant" with the measure of applying a salary increase, which is why it has encouraged it to "facilitate" the process within the meetings that the unions are holding with the AEB.

For its part, CCOO also met with Simoes in mid-July, when he transferred the initiative to open the banking agreement negotiating table "and thus negotiate a recovery of purchasing power" and an "improvement of working conditions" .

In recent months, CC.OO., UGT and FINE have been asking both the AEB and the CECA to open a negotiation to review the collective agreement based on the provisions of article 86.1 of the Workers' Statute.

As they defend, the current scenario differs from the one that existed at the time of the negotiation of the current agreements (negative interest rates, economic prospects of no recovery for another ten years and a global pandemic). In addition, bank profits have risen, while the working conditions of the workforce and their purchasing power have deteriorated.

The unions and the AEB are scheduled to meet again on September 20 to continue analyzing the situation, while the meeting with CECA will take place on Thursday, September 15.