Credit Suisse job cuts must be frozen -bankers leader says
This is due to the current economic conditions.
Important Points
Tuesday, the Swiss parliament will meet in an extra session to discuss Credit Suisse's state-sponsored rescue.
In an open letter sent to the Swiss parliament on Monday, the Swiss Bank Employees' Association said that Credit Suisse and UBS should freeze any planned job cuts as part of the emergency merger.
Natalia Ferrara, managing director of SBPV, has written to legislators to ask them to consider the staff affected by Credit Suisse's collapse and to halt job losses until 2023.
Ferrara's letter, published on Monday by Blick newspaper, said: "We... call on you to back our demand that layoffs be frozen by the end 2023 at the parliament."
She added, "Politicians cannot shirk their responsibility."
The Swiss Parliament will meet in an extraordinary session to discuss the rescue of Credit Suisse by the Swiss government last month.
UBS has agreed to purchase Credit Suisse, a rival company in Zurich for 3 billion Swiss Francs ($3.31billion) as part of a deal arranged by the government and the regulators to prevent a financial meltdown.
Ferrara said that many employees in Switzerland, including the 17,000 Credit Suisse employees and the 22,000 UBS staff, have looked at their futures with uncertainty for the past three-weeks.
Credit Suisse has 45,000 employees worldwide, while UBS employs 74,000.
Ferrara wrote: "In the public discussion about the takeover by UBS of Credit Suisse, there are a lot of discussions about money, regulations, 'too large to fail', or bonuses."
"But the affected staff of the two banks remains only a footnote.
This needs to be changed.
UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti warned last week that there would be "changes and hard decisions" following the takeover.
Tages-Anzeiger reported that the giant bank could cut its workforce by 20-30%.
UBS said that it was too early to speculate about job cuts.
Ferrara stated that it was not UBS's fault the bank needed to be rescued, and added it would take several months to work out the plans.
Ferrara wrote: "It is now time to protect and respect the employees of both banks who are affected by this scandal."
The people who are affected must not be forgotten while the parliament spends days debating the money and technical issues of the CS Rescue during the extraordinary session. ($1 = 0.9069 Swiss francs)