Italy’s UniCredit close to accord with unions on planned job cuts: sources

MILAN (Reuters) – Italy’s top bank UniCredit is close to an accord with unions after negotiations on up to 6,000 job cuts under a new four-year business plan unveiled in December, two sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

A union source said the agreement was expected to envisage 5,200 voluntary layoffs, mainly through early retirements, compared with the initial target of 6,000.

Some 800 people would instead be retrained and reassigned to different positions, the person said, adding UniCredit had also agreed to around 2,600 new hirings of young staff.

The bank declined to comment on the details of the accord.

(Reporting by Valentina Za; editing by Agnieszka Flak)