Credit: Jazmin Campbell

The LCGB, OGBL and ALEBA trade unions have confirmed that, as of 31 March 2021, an agreement for a social plan has been reached for the employees of RBC Luxembourg.

The unions consider this decision to start negotiations for a new social plan in relation to the staff, who in the face of the current crisis situation are facing new pressure and new concerns, while the last social plan signed in 2019 has not yet come to an end.

RBC Luxembourg, a Canadian bank, which employs more than 1,100 employees in Luxembourg, had announced in early March 2021 that it would proceed with further economic layoffs following internal restructuring. After intense negotiations held in a constructive climate between the LCGB, OGBL and ALEBA unions and company management, a maximum of 241 positions will ultimately be affected by the social plan and the unions were able to obtain, compared to the signed social plan in 2019, extra-legal financial and social indemnities markedly improved in order to compensate for the loss of employment of the employees concerned.

In order to ensure that the lives of the employees concerned are safeguarded, the unions have also been able to obtain additional support measures aimed at keeping them in employment. The social plan also provides for measures that will allow the employees concerned to adapt their skills to any new needs of the financial sector or even reorientation on the labour market.

While the trade unions have strongly deplored this frantic race for the benefit and to the detriment of RBC employees, the unions have called on the company's management to do everything in their power to ensure the sustainability of the Luxembourg site and thus guarantee the jobs and lives of the employees.