Germany’s Commerzbank nears agreement on job cuts amid merger threat #NewsGerman

Negotiations over job cuts at Germany’s Commerzbank are nearly complete, the works council said on Tuesday.

“We are in the final stages of negotiations regarding the framework of a social plan and a reconciliation of interests,” works council chairwoman Sacha Uebel told dpa in Frankfurt.

Uebel confirmed a report from the Handelsblatt business newspaper that a special sitting of the works council is planned on May 14 in Wiesbaden, one day before Commerzbank’s annual general meeting.

The German bank’s management announced plans in February to cut 3,900 full-time jobs by 2027, 3,300 of them in Germany.

Germany’s second-largest private bank, seeking to resist a takeover by Italy’s Unicredit, is trying to ensure its independence by cutting thousands of jobs and increasing its profits.

In September, Unicredit took advantage of the German government’s partial exit from Commerzbank, which had been partially nationalized after the 2008/2009 financial crisis, and made a large-scale investment in the bank.

The German government retains a 12% share in Commerzbank.

The Italian institution’s chief executive, Andreas Orcel, has been campaigning for a merger between the two banks for months, but faces resistance from the company’s works council and the verdi trade union.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the works council and trade union emphasized the importance of maintaining Commerzbank’s independence.