In an open letter sent to Switzerland’s parliament on Tuesday, the Swiss Bank Employees’ Association (SBPV) demanded that Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) and UBS (UBSG.S) halt any job losses they had in mind as part of an emergency merger.
Natalia Ferrara, managing director of SBPV, wrote to parliamentarians to demand that they take into account employees affected by the Credit Suisse bankruptcy and stop any job losses until the end of 2023.
Tuesday’s extraordinary session of the Swiss parliament is scheduled to cover the topic of last month’s government-sponsored rescue of Credit Suisse.
In order to prevent a collapse of the nation’s financial system, the government, the central bank, and market regulator negotiated for UBS to purchase rival Credit Suisse of Zurich for 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.31 billion).
Regarding the workforce numbers in Switzerland, Ferrara stated, “For the past three weeks, many of the approximately 17,000 employees at Credit Suisse and the 22,000 employees at UBS have been looking at their future with uncertainty.”
While UBS has 74,000 employees worldwide, Credit Suisse has 45,000.
“There is a lot of talk about numbers, money, regulation, ‘too big to fail,’ or bonuses in the public debate about the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS,” wrote Ferrara, whose organization represents 6,000 workers in Switzerland.
“However, the two banks’ impacted employees are still simply a footnote. That need to alter.
Following the takeover, there would be “change and hard decisions,” UBS Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti said last week.