The multitude of trade unions representing employees at Novo Banco agreed today that "the anxiety and fear levels increase from day to day, causing the a great strain on workers" and that a restructuring plan announced by management, after the bank failed to sell, may well lead to the departure of many employees.
"The restructuring plan, as the bank has not merged or been taken over by a third party, may jeopardise many jobs and seriously affect the family life of thousands of Portuguese," read a statement released today by the union.
The various unions representing Novo Banco workers met today in Coimbra to discuss the staff situation in a committee that included representatives from the National Union of Bank Technicians (SNQTB), Southern and Islands Bank Employees Union (SBSI), the Northern Bank Workers Union (SBN) and the Union of Financial Workers (SINTAF).
The committee reported that "levels of anxiety and fear increase day by day, thereby causing a great physical and psychological strain on all workers," pointing to "the obvious difficulty that the resolution fund and the Bank of Portugal are having in selling Novo Banco."
The unions spare no ire at the Bank of Portugal governor Carlos Costa and state that they are concerned at the hurried and incompetent sale process and the respective impacts on the deficit, and that Costa "has never showed any concern for the 5,660 employees of Novo Banco or other employees in the group."
The union representatives concluded that "whatever the solution found for the future of Novo Banco, all jobs should be safeguarded as should social peace and the pension fund."
On September 15th 2015 the Bank of Portugal suspended the sale of Novo Banco and instructed its directors to restructure the institution.
The next day, Chief Executive Stock da Cunha (pictured) wrote to employees asking them to keep focused on the priorities set for the bank and simply to ignore the setbacks in the sale process.
Under Ricardo Salgado, BES went bust on August 3, 2014 four days after presenting a half-yearly loss of €3.6 billion.
The Bank of Portugal used a special resolution to take charge of BES and announced its division into 'good bank' Novo Banco and ‘bad bank’ BES which ended up with all the liabilities and toxic assets.
The Bank of Portugal failed to sell Novo Banco due mainly to the risible offers from two Chinese institutions which would have crystalised the loss for taxpayers and Portugal's other high street banks.
