Italy’s UniCredit agrees 5,200 voluntary layoffs, 2,600 hirings: unions

MILAN (Reuters) – Italy’s biggest bank UniCredit has agreed with unions 5,200 voluntary layoffs to meet staff reduction goals under a new four-year plan presented in December, unions said on Thursday.

“The agreement reached today puts an end to all ideas about redundancies at UniCredit,” unions FABI, FIRST CISL, CGIL FISAC, UILCA and UNISIN said in a joint statement.

“We’ve managed to reduce layoffs under the plan from 6,000 to 5,200, all of which are on a voluntary basis and with incentives, and 2,600 young people will be hired,” they said, confirming figures reported by Reuters on Wednesday.

“It’s a message of enormous social value … for this country’s unemployed youth.”

(Reporting by Valentina Za, editing by Giulia Segreti)