The Banking Association, chaired by Sergio Palazzo, announced a 24-hour nationwide strike for Thursday 23 Februaryafter the failure of the joint meeting with the sector entities employed by the Ministry of Labour.
“An agreement has not been reached. Beyond the percentages and revising the 2022 parities, we have proposed that the business sector accept a part of the income tax that workers pay today. The answer was negative,” said Palazzo .
The general secretary of the banks confirmed the measure of force and anticipated that if the business sector does not pay attention to the complaint, the union will meet “to intensify the measures”.
“We ask for compensation. As long as there is none, there will be no possible parity that we can agree on”Palazzo observed.
Furthermore, he argued that it is “the second month” in which a new joint agreement should be in force and that as long as the conflict lasts, workers “will continue to earn as in December”.
“Patience has a limit and that is why a measure of force will be taken. Each branch will have the power to mobilize on its territory, so there will certainly be mobilizations at the banks’ doors”, he concluded.
With a press release, the union body asked for answers from the business world regarding the salary update, the closure of last year’s parity and that corresponding to 2023, as well as the issue of the tax on workers.
In May 2022, the bankers agreed on a 60% increase in payable salaries in three tranches and one retroactive in January. In September, they closed an update that reached 94.1%, after reopening wage negotiations at the Ministry of Labour.
The measure was taken after a meeting of the banking secretariat (AB), which defined the strike as “in defense of salary” and in rejection of the “provocative position of the chambers of commerce” in the ambit of the joint negotiation they are carrying out outside.
“We continue without having satisfactory answers from the business sector in the hearing of the parity held on the day of the date. The banking chambers continue without hearing from the male and female workers, while time continues to pass and the purchasing power of our salary is seen dented day after day by day,” they said in a statement
Even the union representing bank workers referred to Irpef and reiterated that “for this union, salary is not profit”.
“As regards personal income tax, – they add – starting from the assumption that our Union has always maintained that salary is not profit, we need to start taking a path that allows, once and for all, to obtain relief for those who pay free “.
And they proposed that “since this cannot be resolved with a legislative reform on schedule, our demand that, in this emergency, the banking institutions take charge of the compensation is necessary and legitimate”.
Source: Clarin
