In an internal note of the Executive Committee, to which Lusa had access, Santander announced that “according to the calculation made to date, there are approximately 350 employees (out of the number of 685 employees initially planned to be included in the Restructuring Plan) who did not accept the proposal formulated by the bank”.

The same note adds that “the opinion of the National Workers Commission prior to the application of unilateral measures to reduce the number of workers” of the institution has already been requested under legal terms.

The Executive Committee indicated that “the unilateral and formal process that will follow will focus only on employees covered by the Restructuring Plan who decided not to reach an agreement with the bank, and will start in the first days of September.”

The bank has guaranteed that, “for each of the employees covered, determined in accordance with transparent and objective criteria, the bank presented the best conditions in the market, proposing early retirements to employees over 55 years of age, and including in the value of the revocation agreements, as for the other employees, a compensation containing a portion corresponding to the estimated gross amount of unemployment benefit”.

At issue are workers from various areas of the central services and the bank’s commercial network, including those who were covered by the unilateral procedure.

On 30 July, it was reported that around 1,200 workers were expected to leave Santander Totta this year, according to information provided by the bank’s president in parliament.

According to the accounts for the first half (profits of €81.4 million), between January and June 215 workers left, with Santander Totta having 5,765 employees in June.