Empowering employees
Rabobank has been undergoing a radical transition, the objective of which is
to ensure that, by 2016, all its processes, procedures and commitments are
designed to maximise benefit for its customers.The transition will affect the
structure of the organisation and also have a major impact on employees in
both their personal and professional lives.These changes have already
resulted in a workforce reduction at local Rabobanks, with more cuts to
follow after the redesign of Rabobank Nederland and the international
banking business.The Rabobank Nederland Works Council has been closely
involved in this ongoing process.
Employment, workforce reduction and Sociaal Plan
As part of the Vision 2016 programme, a total of approximately 9,000 jobs will be eliminated at
Rabobank in the Netherlands between 2012 and 2016, roughly 25% of all jobs to be found at
the bank. At year-end 2012, Rabobank employed a total of 41,858 people in the Netherlands,
a number which had been reduced to 40,043 by the end of 2013 and was further cut to 36,489
by year-end 2014. Although we are aware that these job cuts result in lower employment, a
workforce reduction is necessary in order for us to remain a strong bank in the future, to continue
serving the Dutch economy and to continue offering our employees excellent opportunities.
Rabobank maintains its own Collective Labour Agreement (CLA). In order to ensure that the
workforce reduction proceeds as scrupulously as possible, the bank signed a Sociaal Plan with
the trade unions in 2013, as part of the Agreement for 2013-2015. The negotiating partners
agreed in 2014 that the Agreement would be renewed until 2016, including the Sociaal Plan.
This ensures that the employees who are to be made redundant between now and the end of
2016 are informed of the type of support they will receive during this process and what terms
of severance will apply.
The current 2013-2015 Collective Labour Agreement stipulates that no collective wage increase
will take place during this period, while the extended Agreement for 2016 provides that there
will again be no such collective wage increase in 2016. The feedback we have received on the
renewal of our Sociaal Plan has been largely positive, on account of the generous severance
packages we will continue to offer those leaving the company. Others, however, feel that by
upholding the extended pay freeze, we are reducing the net purchasing power of employees
remaining with the company. We emphasise however that we made this decision in good
conscience and in conjunction with the trade unions. We consider it extremely important to act
meticulously and in accordance with the highest principles in parting ways with employees, a
great number of whom have served the company for many years. In addition, the general pay
freeze is also consistent with Rabobank's wish to scale back its terms of employment.
The Sociaal Plan, which is designed to avoid redundancy and job cuts as much as possible,
provides for a phase of'active mobility', as part of which employees whose position will be
eliminated in the near or more distant future will be offered additional opportunities to find
Empowering employees
