THE OLDEST MAGIC TRICK IS THAT OF DISTRACTION AND ILLUSION
The distraction
Following last Friday's "good news show" in the press where they only talk about facilitating 50% home working and flexibility, the reality is that this is indeed also about restructuring and savings. And this for the next 3 years !
ING deliberately avoids the term "restructuring" and prefers to speak of "evolutions".
A job guarantee is only foreseen until the end of 2021. There are no guarantees for the period 2022-2023! A business plan for the next 3 years was not presented !
While staff in the various departments and the office network are groaning under the workload and asking for reinforcement, the door is being left wide open here for a further reduction of the effective. Numbers are not mentioned. Nor are the activities that will disappear....
With this collective labour agreement, a blank cheque is given to ING to proceed with further cutbacks this year, and this even before the expiry of the previous plan that still gave guarantees until the end of the year!
Soon, when the announcements will come in the works council, the signatories will jump on the table to and shout that it is a disgrace with slogans like "ING shame on you !". They will rush out with a pamphlet to appease you that it will all be no big deal.
If you will soon have to accept a job of equal level, where schedules, geographical mobility and your private situation are of secondary importance and your participation no longer counts...
If and mismatch procedure is even so uncertain that a medical certificate is your only way out....
How credible are you left as a union to sign this blindly ?
The illusion
And is what is on the table now an improvement on what existed before ?
Along with the restructuring, ING is proceeding with a downward revision of compensation for both telecommuting and commuting, even against industry agreements. Profit participations and its components were also revised downwards, especially for the new hires from 01/04/2021. New criteria were introduced in terms of targets to be met. These targets are not always SMART and are quantitative rather than qualitative in nature.
We get a system of communicating vessels where the choice between telework, commuting and CLA90 objectives interact and even cancel each other out.
The bill will be presented. The phased approach to implementation should ensure that you don't notice it right away. However, you will feel it in your purchasing power with even aftershocks until 2023 in your taxation !
It is mainly the disparity in the granting of benefits such as for example the allowance for home work and/or office equipment, the CLA 90 amounts, but also the granting or not of leave days for the substantial efforts and the possibility or permission to telework . We would have preferred the modalities of teleworking to be more in-depth and expected more guarantees. A commitment in this does not go far enough with still too many dependencies. Frustrations and uncertainties among staff result.
The magic trick
Our green comrades could not communicate quickly enough that we were only prepared to sign the protocol on social consultation where we did not want to subscribe to the collective agreements. Once again a way of distraction and completely beside the point....
Let it be clear: we did not sign anything!
Nor did we endorse the social consultation protocol. It was an explicit request by the Green Group to bind this protocol to the negotiations, they even threatened to blow up the negotiations - and thus your interests! - to be blown up if the Common Trade Union Front did not go along with this. Only with sufficient guarantees for the staff were we prepared to make a concession. These guarantees did not materialise, the price was too high. Your interests should never, ever be subordinated to the union's interests.... Consequently, we are consistent here too.
We never risk our integrity and credibility ! Those who signed see things differently. They could not rush fast enough to safeguard their exemption rates and thus job security until 2028! You, on the other hand, will have to get ready for another "Rafting" trip with a boat that leaks, without oars and without enough life jackets. So it will be pump or sink. They also did not agree to a 1-year collective agreement. Too much trouble to get back around the table at the end of this year at the time when there is more clarity. The spoils are in, it is now just waiting for your vote in 2024.....
We will continue on our own with your support, the workers, whose interests we truly defend every day.
Perhaps you still have questions and we would also like to know your opinion.
You can send your comments to: BE-CGSLB-ACLVB
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