The Unicaja Banco shareholders’ meeting held this Thursday in Malaga points presented by the entity’s board of directors, except for the ratification of the independent Maite Costa and Isidoro Unda.
The meeting has had a representative quorum of 86.09% of the share capital, of which 12.56% have attended personally, while 73.53% have attended represented. During the meeting, the disagreement of the workers and shareholders with respect to the governance and labor relations model of the bank was revealed.
In this sense, the Unicaja Banking Foundation, majority shareholder in the entity with 30.2% of the share capital and represented in the assembly by its director Sergio Corral, has stated that the law obliges the Foundation to direct its activity to the “adequate, sound and prudent management” of its financial participation in Unicaja Banco, in such a way that “it must ensure” that the entity “maintains solid corporate governance procedures” in accordance with national and international regulations and standards in force in every moment.
Corral has also indicated that one of the Foundation’s objectives is for the bank’s financial activity “to be at the service” of the real economy and to adapt to the “traditional commercial banking business model, close to families and SMEs”. for which it is “fundamental” to maintain “an adequate working environment”.
“This general framework of action, sustainable and financially efficient, is expected to contribute to the maintenance of a solid capital and liquidity position and the generation of returns for the owners of Unicaja Banco which, from the point of view of the Foundation, enables the adequate attention to social work”, he added.
The director of the Foundation has registered that Unicaja Banco was established in 2011 by Unicaja for the indirect exercise of its financial activity. “The Foundation, as successor to Unicaja, is called upon to preserve, as a strict and rigorous executor, the great historical legacy received and accumulated in almost 140 years,” he defended.
In this way, he has indicated that the Foundation defends that the bank does not lose its “traditional corporate profile”, based on the principles of orientation to the retail business, linkage to the territory, profitability, prudent risk management and responsibility and its decisions adopted online with ESG criteria.
Corral recalled that the merger agreement with Liberbank establishes that, within a period of two years from the operation, that is, before July 30, 2023, the board of directors must modify the governance model of Unicaja Banco, in such a way so that the council of the president, Manuel Azuaga, leaves his executive functions, and the CEO, Manuel Menéndez, is re-evaluated.
In this regard, the exposed Foundation has in the meeting that “will help” to make decisions that are aimed at improving the business model and governance of the entity. For their part, various union representatives have rejected the negotiation model, known as the Objective Distribution Model (MDO), which has begun to be implemented in the entity since January.
Thus, the CCOO has expressed its wish that the board held today “reduce the governance crisis” that affects the bank and “labor relations be normalized” and leave behind “some authoritarian ways of doing things that history has shown have been failed and have forced an entity, now extinct, to become part of Unicaja Banco”, in reference to Liberbank.
The unions have asked that the territorial link be maintained, that the merger agreements be fulfilled, especially the salary equalization, that the interest rates of the loans granted to employees be lowered and that the working environment be improved.
In his response to the interventions of the shareholders, the executive president of Unicaja Banco, Manuel Azuaga, has avoided responding to the interventions that have not led to questions, such as that of the Unicaja Banking Foundation, but, instead, has highlighted the work of the bank team to deal with the complex macro-financial environment, as well as solutions and measures to manage climate risk and financial exclusion.
With respect to labor relations, he has affirmed that any merger process, when it also entails a restructuring of offices and employees, “produces imbalances in its operation.” “Measures are being taken and will continue to be taken, until the normal operation of the entity is complete. I hope to count on everyone’s effort and sacrifice and I hope that labor relations develop in a climate of dialogue, consensus and agreement with the representatives of the workers, he added.