El Corte Inglés and the unions have already agreed on the new plan to cut staff and transfer workers from offices to stores. The pact includes 630 incentivized redundancies for people over 59 years of age, as well as the transfer to commercial establishments of 1,470 employees from central and regional services.
The department stores announced the process a month ago and during the negotiation the exit conditions have been modified, which the workers’ representatives now consider more advantageous. The final restructuring plan reduces the affected employees to 2,100, compared to the 2,324 that had been initially proposed.
The objective of the company with this is “to strengthen the stores, attend to the good evolution of sales and improve customer service and attention”. “The modernization and development of processes and systems experienced in recent times -he adds- has led to an optimization of management models, which, in the case of our company, translates into the need to reorganize central services to strengthen commercial establishments.
According to the Intercentre Committee, an increase has also been established in the event of refusing the termination of the contract above the legal maximum, both in days of compensation and in the maximum number of months. In addition, it ensures that the company’s proposals have been expanded in terms of the percentage of salary applied to leave from the age of 59, as well as the formula of capitalizing all the amounts in a single payment, making immediate liquidity available to the people who voluntarily use this formula.
The period of acceptance of the plan in regard to incentivized terminations establishes a limit of 21 days from the moment the company notifies it. Regarding transfers, the union party details that it will be guaranteed that the plan does not affect vulnerable groups, 50% of the personal supplement will be maintained with a maximum limit of 3,000 euros, as well as the seniority supplement, and prior notice will be given. of two months before the incorporation for personnel with children under 12 years of age, among other guarantees. The execution period of this process is until February 28, 2025.
The new personnel cuts that the incentivized redundancies imply comes after a process of progressive reduction of its staff, of more than 19% in ten years. In 2021, El Corte Inglés’ own workforce dropped to 79,804 workers and now.
