Novo Banco managed to gain the support of 90% of the 700 workers to whom it proposed an agreement to end a dispute relating to amounts on credit cards allocated by BES and subsequently cancelled, according to sources contacted by Lusa.
At issue are credit cards that hundreds of Banco Espírito Santo (BES) employees had assigned as a salary supplement and which they could use for personal expenses such as restaurants and hotels, electronic items or books.
In the years prior to the resolution of BES and the creation of Novo Banco (2014), these credit cards were unilaterally canceled by the bank and since then workers have been claiming the entire amount.
To resolve the salary dispute, in September, Novo Banco proposed a single salary compensation to be paid in October corresponding to 50% of the amount that each worker claimed and the extinction of future liability.
For example, a worker who has an accumulated ceiling of 24 thousand euros is offered to receive 12 thousand euros gross in October and give up the rest for the years he works at the bank. It also refrains from resorting to litigation in the future.
Contacted by Lusa at the beginning of October, Novo Banco said that in its view the issue of credit cards was closed, but that it “understood, in dialogue with the [sindicato] SNQTB and other unions, consider a transversal, fair and equitable solution that would definitively put an end to this issue for the benefit of everyone involved”.
Now, according to several sources contacted, the proposal has been accepted by 90% of the approximately 700 workers to whom it was made.
After Lusa reported this proposal two weeks ago, several workers contacted the agency reporting that they had been pressured to accept it by hierarchical superiors, including talking about possible loss of benefits, and that possible changes in labor law relating to workers’ credit were also invoked to lead to acceptance. For fear of being penalized, the employees did not want to make statements to Lusa.
Also according to information collected by Lusa, in the information sessions that the bank held in September with workers it was said that, for those who do not accept, the bank will consider that the amount on the card be deducted from remuneration or bonuses that are awarded.
Lusa questioned Novo Banco about the alleged pressure and the deduction of the amount in the future for those who do not sign, but received no answers to these questions.
Lusa also contacted the National Union of Banking Staff and Technicians (SNQTB) to clarify whether or not it will provide legal support to members who wish to litigate against the bank on this issue, but it did not respond.
Two weeks ago, the union considered the bank’s proposal “a balanced position”, which “will allow hundreds of workers to be compensated for their rights” and regarding the litigation stated that it “will follow the direction of the decision of the majority of its members”.
In a recent action to challenge the dismissal of a bank worker, to which Lusa had access, the court decided, in a case that also involved payment via credit card, that the bank had to assume the amount for the years that it had not paid, plus late payment interest, arguing with the regularity and frequency with which it had been paid.
In another ruling from 2019, to which Lusa had access, a worker at Banco Best (held by Novo Banco) complains about having his ceiling removed and the court obliges the bank to pay the money not paid since 2011 and start integrating the amount that was paid annually into the monthly salary (dividing the annual amount by 14 months).
Novo Banco – created in 2014 to take over part of BES’s banking activity (in its resolution) – was agreed to be sold, last June, to the French banking group BPCE for 6,400 million euros.
Currently, the bank is 75% owned by the North American fund Lone Star and 25% by the Portuguese State (Directorate-General of the Treasury and Finance and Bank Resolution Fund), with the sale deal still being finalized.
In September, the news from Público was controversial that directors of Lone Star and managers of Novo Banco should receive bonuses amounting to 1,100 million euros paid by shareholder Lone Star in connection with the successful sale of Novo Banco.
The workers reacted by asking that they also be rewarded for the sale and, last week, the Novo Banco Workers’ Committee launched a petition among the 4,000 employees demanding that management provide a bonus for each worker equivalent to two salaries.