Unicaja intends to take another step to leave behind its previous turbulent stage and this Tuesday ratifies Isidro Rubiales as the new CEO in an extraordinary meeting that will not be free of noise either.. The majority unions in the entity – CCOO, UGT, CSIF and Cesica – have called for protests yesterday and today to demand that the new management team show greater diligence when it comes to improving the salary and working conditions of a staff.. “We had high expectations with the new CEO, but things are going slower than expected,” union sources assure this newspaper.
The workers' representatives demand a standardization of remuneration among all the group's workers to put an end to the divergences that exist between employees from the different entities that made up Liberbank and Unicaja itself.. They also want “real progress in equal pay and in the occupation of positions of greater responsibility, which is still resisted in the upper echelons of the entity”; a salary standardization that allows them to reduce the gap with the sector average and demand a greater provision of people and means to improve the quality of service to customers and the quality of the work environment for the employees themselves.
“The negotiations are open but they are not going at the pace we expected to improve the toxic work environment that we continue to have,” say the sources consulted.
Among the workers and their representatives there is some disappointment about Rubiales' role. The new CEO met with the union organizations shortly after being appointed, something that his predecessor, Manuel Menéndez, never wanted to do.. This meeting is a gesture valued by the unions, but now they demand to transform the “good words” of the meetings into actions. “We thought that the new CEO was a breath of fresh air, but it is more of the same,” they lament.
When they talk about more of the same, the unions allude to the “commercial pressure” that they say they endure in the branches to meet the objectives and repeat the “toxicity” that according to them is breathed in the entity's offices. “The work environment continues to be unsustainable,” they complain. They assure that they have been facing a “complicated situation” since the merger with Liberbank, but they celebrate that at least the company has opened itself to dialogue. “Before that was unthinkable. Now at least we are negotiating,” they say and, although they understand that things cannot change from one day to the next, they regret that the talks have remained stuck.. “We have seven different salary realities. If there is money to remunerate directors, there must be money for everyone,” they say.
Remunerations
The increase in the remuneration of the board of directors is precisely one of the points on the table this Tuesday, along with the ratification also of the independent directors Rocío Fernández, Antonio Carrascosa, Inés Guzmán and Nuria Aliño. Regarding remuneration, the bank proposes setting the maximum amount of annual remuneration for all directors, in their capacity as such, at 1.95 million euros, that is, without considering remuneration for the performance of executive functions.
As stated in the remuneration policy for the period between 2021 and 2023, the maximum amount was set at 950,000 gross euros, although it was raised to 1.1 million gross euros after the merger by absorption with Liberbank in July 2021 with the in order to adapt it to the new number of directors resulting after the operation, since the council went from 12 to 15 members. The new maximum amount will be applicable from its approval and during the 2024 financial year, although it will be updated in 2025 and 2026 according to the salary review percentage set in the collective agreement applicable to the entity's employees.. It will remain in force until the board agrees to modify it.
The board will also request authorization from shareholders to deliver to executive directors, during the period of validity of the remuneration policy and provided they meet the conditions, a portfolio of shares with a maximum value of 1.2 million euros.