Credit: Jazmin Campbell
The Association Luxembourgeoise des Employés de Banque et Assurance (ALEBA, the trade union representing staff working in the finance sector in Luxembourg), has confirmed that the social plan agreed with management of RBC IS in Luxembourg has been extended to 30 April 2021.
According to ALEBA, the Canadian bank of 1,000 employees located in Esch-Belval wanted the social plan that had been agreed in December 2019, which affects 43 people out of the 201 employees initially affected and which was due to expire on 31 January 2021, to be extended because of delays in the restructuring plan of the financial institution.
During the negotiations between representatives of ALEBA and RBC IS, ALEBA strictly defended each employee who finds a job is exempted from giving notice while retaining all of their financial, legal and extra-legal indemnities.
For ALEBA, the extension was indeed only possible under these conditions, which avoided any unfair treatment of employees made redundant in 2020, any loss of salary and any benefit, even partial. "We nevertheless had to fight against the Management but also against the Ogbl-Lcgb unions, which contented themselves with a single notification on 31 January 2021 for the 43 employees, which would obviously have resulted in an unacceptable loss of income for the employees concerned" explained David Billay and Jean-Louis Lannoo, employee representatives at RBC IS.
“In a complicated socio-economic context, due to the pandemic, there can be no question that the rights and interests of employees of companies in the financial sector will be diminished. This is a very clear message to the management of companies and employers' organisations" added Roberto Mendolia, President of ALEBA.
