Bank workers launch first-ever strike at Italian stock exchange

Around 800 workers will go on the first-ever strike in the history of the Borsa Italiana Group – a leading European stock market – on 27 June 2024. They are protesting potential relocations, inadequate salary increases, overtime and the loss of autonomy of the Italian companies in the Group. 

The trade unions and UNI affiliates FABI, FIRST CISL, and FISAC CGIL jointly announced the strike and further mobilisations over the following two weeks at four of the Group’s companies: Borsa Italiana, Cassa Compensazione e Garanzia, MTS and Monte Titoli. The Borsa Italiana acts as a driver for the growth of the real economy, the Cassa Compensazione e Garanzia as a financial stability tool for the Italian markets, while MTS and Monte Titoli are responsible for the prudent and efficient management of sovereign public debt. 

Angelo Di Cristo, Head of UNI Finance, said: “With this strike, workers and their trade unions are taking an unprecedented step. But these are unprecedented times: while inflation has reduced workers’ purchasing power, the Borsa Italiana Group is considering relocating outside of Italy. Instead, it should come to the negotiating table to find a common solution with the trade unions. UNI Finance stands by the workers in their fight for decent working conditions.”  

The trade unions are particularly concerned about job security at a national level. While plans for delocalisation and near-shoring of entire areas of activity outside national borders are being outlined, the company continues to refuse to provide guarantees and undertake shared paths to protect jobs and enhance existing skills.  

Moreover, the employer decided not to grant the salary increases provided by the renewed national collective labour agreement in the banking sector, even though the companies in the Group achieved record results in 2023, in particular. The unions consider this the latest instance demonstrating the Group’s unwillingness to protect the purchasing power of Italian workers against inflation.  

Following organisational structures that have become increasingly fragile over time, it has become systematic and now structural within the Borsa Italiana Group to resort to overtime, work on Saturdays, holidays, and even night shifts, combined with an unsustainable management of on-call duty. 

Maureen Hick, Director of UNI Europa Finance, said: “The pervasiveness of overtime at the companies of the Borsa Italiana Group is deeply worrying. This is endangering not just workers’ physical and mental health but the sustainability of the Group as a whole. This urgently needs to change – we want to see the employers negotiate a healthy arrangement with the Italian unions.” 

Finally, the unions are concerned with governance and the progressive loss of managerial and strategic autonomy of the Italian companies in the Borsa Italiana Group. In light of the national significance of the stock market infrastructure for driving economic growth and ensuring financial stability in Italy, they criticise a progressive transfer of the Group’s strategic direction outside of Italy and a shift of top roles to other geographic areas of the Euronext Group, of which it is part.  

Apart from a two-hour strike at the end of the workday on 28 June, the following mobilisations will take place: 

BORSA ITALIANA S.p.A. and MONTE TITOLI S.p.A.: 

• Saturday, June 29: abstention from extraordinary activities and strike of on-call availability, 

• Sunday, June 30: abstention from extraordinary activities and strike of on-call availability, 

• Monday, July 1: moratorium 

• Tuesday, July 2: strike of on-call availability 

• Wednesday, July 3: moratorium 

• Thursday, July 4: strike of on-call availability 

• Friday, July 5: strike of on-call availability 

• Saturday, July 6: abstention from extraordinary activities and strike of on-call availability 

• Sunday, July 7: abstention from extraordinary activities and strike of on-call availability 

• Monday, July 8: moratorium 

• Tuesday, July 9: strike of on-call availability 

• Wednesday, July 10: moratorium 

• Thursday, July 11: strike of on-call availability 

• Friday, July 12: strike of on-call availability 

• Saturday, July 13: abstention from extraordinary activities and strike of on-call availability 

• Sunday, July 14: abstention from extraordinary activities and strike of on-call availability 

CASSA COMPENSAZIONE E GARANZIA S.p.A.: 

• Thursday, July 4: one-hour strike with abstention from work from 11:30 to 12:30 

• Thursday, July 11: one-hour strike with abstention from work from 11:30 to 12:30 

MTS S.p.A.: 

• Saturday, July 6: strike of overtime 

• Saturday, July 13: strike of overtime