Piraeus Bank to offer its staff sabbaticals
Piraeus Bank launched a voluntary redundancy program on Wednesday that will be completed on July 19 and is anticipated to reduce the lender’s staff by 500 people.
Besides the option of an immediate departure with a maximum severance pay of 180,000 euros, the program also offers the option of a two- or three-year sabbatical with a maximum pay of €200,000.
In those cases, if a worker opts for a two-year sabbatical, they can receive 50% of the severance pay in a lump sum and 70% of their salary. In case of a three-year sabbatical, the monthly gross salary will come to 50% of the current amount. Especially for employees who are at least 50 years old, there will also be an option for a further extension to their time off work, to four or five years, with the corresponding spreading of the gross salary due for two years.
Staff cost-cutting constitutes a key target in the effort to reduce operational costs and forms part of the bank’s transformation plan, which includes its capital restructuring and the streamlining of its portfolio.
The Piraeus Group’s plan expects that staff numbers will drop to 8,000 by 2024 from 10,400 at end-2020, while the number of branches will shrink from 505 to 430.
