Bilateralism and training
Bilaterality is a fundamental pillar of the banking world of work, which the sector's labour relations have increasingly developed and implemented over time.
Bilaterality is concerned with financing vocational training, providing benefits to support individuals and companies involved in transformation processes, encouraging the creation of stable and quality employment, fostering generational turnover, contributing to supplementary social security and supplementary health care, and supporting solidarity projects.
The numbers of FBA (year 2023)
The numbers of Fondir (year 2024)
With the aim of supporting the creation of new stable employment, the sectoral social partners established in 2012, as part of theBilateral Agency for the Credit Sector (Enbicredit), the Fund for Employment (F.O.C.).
The F.O.C., entirely financed with resources from the sector, grants companies a contribution for each permanent recruitment or confirmation of a fixed-term contract of young people or people who are weak in the labour market. The contribution is up to EUR 16,500 over a three-year period, increased by a further EUR 3,500 for each recruitment that increases the company workforce.
Women
From 2012 to February 2025, the Fund financed 41,841 permanent hires/confirmations of fixed-term contracts.
Men
The F.O.C. It also finances staff retraining/retraining programmes, supports pathways for transversal skills and orientation (PCTO, formerly school-to-work alternation) that banks organise together with schools, and intervenes to encourage generational relay (stable recruitment of young people in exchange for part-time senior staff).
Lastly, the F.O.C. Extends from 24 to 42 months the duration of income support benefits for people in the sector who have involuntarily lost their jobs, encouraging their outplacement through a hiring bonus (up to EUR 60,000) for credit companies that hire them on an open-ended basis.
The "Solidarity fund for professional reconversion and retraining, employment and income support of credit personnel"Since its establishment by agreement between the social partners in 1998, it has made it possible to manage the continuous transformation and reorganisation processes of banks in a way that is sustainable for workers and companies.
It is the sector's social shock absorber and is entirely financed by companies and bank staff: it has been in operation since 2000 with effective and always up-to-date instruments that have been able to anticipate solutions that have subsequently been adopted for the entire productive fabric by successive reforms of social shock absorbers.
One of the main measures of the Solidarity Fund is the one that allows workers in the sector to be accompanied to retirement, by recognising, for a maximum period of 5 years prior to the accrual of pension requirements, an allowance equal to the future pension received.
Since 2000, more than 106,000 people have voluntarily joined the retirement support plans implemented by companies in the sector through the Solidarity Fundthereby facilitating the important process of generational change through the voluntary departure of senior staff and the recruitment of young people
Over 106,000 workers taken into retirement since 2000
The Solidarity Fund It also finances the retraining of people involved in company restructuring or reorganisation processes, thereby promoting their employability.
The tools available to the Solidarity Fund They also provide for income support measures for persons in the event of temporary suspension of work due to business needs (similar to the wage compensation fund institute operating in other productive sectors) as well as an economic supplement to public social safety nets in the event of involuntary job loss.
Bilaterality has also developed traditional welfare instruments: supplementary health care and supplementary pensions.
The National Health Insurance Fund for Employees in the Credit Sector (CASDIC)established since 1992, contributes to the expenses of registered workers for health benefits supplementing or replacing those provided by the National Health Service.
Through the Casdic and the Foundation LTC (a philanthropic body, set up by the social partners), all workers in the sector can receive financial support for assistance in the event of disabling events, resulting in a state of non-self-sufficiency (so-called Long Term Care).
Supplementary pension provision in banks is provided by funds established at company and group level: for companies and their staff that do not have such a solution, Previbank represents the complementary pension fund of reference. It was established in 1988, and thus predates the introduction in Italy of the first legislative regulation of supplementary pension schemes in 1993.
Previbank's numbers
La Foundation Prosolidar a philanthropic body, established in 2012 by the social partners of the sector, inherited the cultural heritage and founding principles of the National Fund of the Credit Sector for Solidarity Projects-Onlus operating since 2005.
It is the first and, at present, the only experience, also at international level, of a body set up by the social partners within the framework of a collective agreement, financed through 'match-gifting', i.e. sharing the contribution equally between workers and companies. The individual contribution, updated with the contractual renewal of November 2023, is EUR 10 per year.
Prosolidar contributes - on a non-profit basis and with concrete actions - to the realisation of solidarity projects promoted by non-profit organisations, supporting, among other things, structural and infrastructural interventions to create measurable and long-lasting initiatives. It also finances projects in favour of the community in the face of emergency events, e.g. of a climatic or health nature.