Bank Employees Leader Calls For A Freeze On Job Cuts At Credit Suisse

In a letter to Switzerland's parliament, the Swiss Bank Employees' Association (SBPV), the union that represents the employees of the Swiss banking companies, called on the Swiss parliament to stop any job cuts planned as a result of Credit Suisse and UBS' emergency merger.

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A statement from Natalia Ferrara, the managing director of SBPV, has been sent to lawmakers in order to demand that they take into consideration the staff affected by the collapse of Credit Suisse and even prevent any job losses until the end of 2023.

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According to Ferrara's letter published by newspaper Blick on Monday, he talks about the need to support the freeze on layoffs that we are calling for in parliament by the end of 2023, and he encourages parliament to support this demand.

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The responsibility of politics should not be shunned by politicians, she stressed.

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On Tuesday, the Swiss parliament will hold an extraordinary session to discuss Credit Suisse's rescue last month, which was a state-sponsored event that was carried out with the assistance of the Swiss central bank.

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In an agreement designed to prevent a meltdown in the country's financial system, UBS has agreed to acquire Credit Suisse, a competitor of Zurich-based UBS, for approximately 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.31 billion), in a deal that was engineered by the Swiss government, the central bank, and market regulators.

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As a result of the uncertain financial market conditions over the past three weeks, many employees at Credit Suisse have been looking toward their future with some uncertainty while others at UBS have been looking ahead with a sense of dread," said Ferrara, referring to the Swiss employee numbers.

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It is estimated that Credit Suisse has 45,000 employees in total across the globe, while UBS has 74,000 employees.

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"In the public debate regarding the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS, there is much talk about numbers, money, regulation, the phrase "too big to fail" and bonuses," Ferrara wrote in an article.

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Despite this, the situation with regard to the employees of the two banks remains only a side issue for now.

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It is imperative that something changes in that regard."

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After UBS took over Deutsche Bank, Sergio Ermotti, the CEO of UBS, warned that there would be a lot of change and some hard decisions to make in the months to come.

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It has been reported by the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger that the giant bank created by Baidu could be hitting the unemployment line by 20%-30%, with 11,000 jobs being lost in the Swiss region alone.

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There has been a statement by UBS that it is too early to speculate about job losses at this moment.

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Despite Ferrara's claim, the rescue of the bank was not due to the fault of the bank employees, but to the circumstance that the banking company's plans would have to be agreed upon over a period of several months.

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Ferrara wrote that it is now imperative that the affected employees be protected and respected in order to move forward in their careers.

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There must not be a case where the parliament spends the entire extraordinary session discussing money and technical aspects of the CS rescue while completely ignoring the people affected by this disaster." ($1 = 0.9069 Swiss francs)