Employees of state bank Caixa Geral de Depósitos strike for higher pay

Employees of Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD), Portugal’s state-owned savings bank, on Monday undertook a strike to demand a revision of the salary scale and other clauses relating to pay in their collective agreement, with a demonstration planned for noon at the bank’s Lisbon headquarters.

The strike was called by the Union of Caixa Geral de Depósitos Group Workers (STEC).

On Friday, the National Union of Bank Technicians (SNQTB) and the Independent Banking Union (SIB) announced that they were joining the strike, so ensuring that their members would receive strike pay for the day.

In a statement, the SNQTB and SIB said they would not tolerate “collective dismissals or threats of job losses” and that, “should these occur, a new strike will be called immediately.”

The unions also demanded that management keep them informed about restructuring processes carried out by the group – implying staff departures – saying that they cannot be excluded from taking part in these processes.

On July 27, Mais Sindicato and Sindicato dos Bancários do Centro (SBC) announced that CGD had informed them that it would begin the revision of the group’s salary scale in September. However, STEC maintained its strike call.

For the first half of this year, CGD has reported €294 million in profit, up 18% from the same period of last year.