Employing all the niceties of management speak, the Secretary of State for Treasury and Finance, Ricardo Mourinho Félix, said in parliament today that there will be no compulsory redundancies - staff numbers will shrink due to early retirement and mutual agreements.
Ricardo Mourinho Félix said that some salaries would be reduced even though pay levels were in line with other banks.
Opposition parties pointed out that the €700 million set aside by the bust bank for redundancy payments easily could pay off 5,000 workers, but Félix would not be drawn on numbers but did not refute the enormous sum earmarked for staff pay-offs.
Despite the Caixa Geral proposed refinancing expected to cost nearly €5 billion, today’s debate focused on the bank’s staff rather than its financial viability post-bailout and the effect the bailout cost will have on the national accounts.
Cecilia Meireles of the CDS asked "How many workers will be laid off and how many branches will be closed?" to which she did not receive a straight answer.
The Left Bloc too kept homing in on staff numbers without a thought that overstaffing may have been part of the problems with the bank’s cost base.
The government pledged also that the taxpayer would be repaid the €2.7 billion in cash that is being thrown at the Caixa refinancing, plus a profit on the investment.
As the politicians concentrated on the minutiae of Caixa Geral’s future staff levels, it was reveled today that on August 30th, the bank lodged a court enforcement action for €2.87 million from entrepreneur Joe Berardo.
The Madeiran businessman was asked to repay the money he borrowed ten years ago to buy shares in BCP bank during the ‘shareholder war'.
As one of Portugal’s richest businessmen, Berardo easily can afford the repayment and it is not yet known why he has defaulted.
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