Banking
Staff at BNP’s Italian bank stage first strike since 1990s
Published by maria gbaf
Posted on December 28, 2021
2 min readLast updated: January 28, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by maria gbaf
Posted on December 28, 2021
2 min readLast updated: January 28, 2026
BNL staff in Italy strike for the first time since the 1990s over IT and back office cuts. Unions report high participation, while BNL maintains operations digitally.
MILAN (Reuters) -Workers at BNL, the Italian arm of French banking group BNP Paribas, went on strike for the first time since the 1990s on Monday in protest at back office and IT staff cuts.
Italian banking unions said the strike was “a great success”, adding that take-up had been solid.
“The bank’s internal offices were completely deserted and remained closed as did most branches,” Fabi, First-Cisl, Fisac-Cgil, Uilca and Unisin said in a joint statement.
BNL said that 29.8% of its employees joined the strike.
“In such context, which is also characterised by year-end holidays, BNL has nevertheless ensured business continuity by strengthening the digital channel to support the physical channel” it said in a statement.
Workers are protesting against BNL’s decision to use external providers for IT and back office services, a move that unions said affects 90 out of a total of 11,500 BNL employees in its central offices and around 700 branches across Italy.
Unions have also voiced grievances about BNL’s sale to Worldline of an 80% stake in its card payment processing business Axepta Italy.
(Reporting by Valentina Za; Additional rpeorting by Giulio Piovaccari; Editing by Alexander Smith and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
The main topic is the strike by BNL staff in Italy over IT and back office staff cuts, marking the first such action since the 1990s.
BNL employees are striking in protest against the bank's decision to use external providers for IT and back office services.
BNL ensured business continuity by strengthening its digital channels to support the physical channel during the strike.
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