Societe Generale’s CEO, Frederic Oudea, has met with labour unions to discuss the bank’s announced budget cuts.
Oudea said the cost cutting doesn’t include collective layoffs in France, Michel Marchet, the representative for CGT labor union at Societe Generale told Dow Jones Newswires in a telephone interview. CGT is the largest union in the bank.
Marchet said CGT and other unions said 40 employees were fired over the past month and fear there may be more layoffs as part of the cost-cutting plans.
“We regret the bank started to yield to market’s pressure,” Marchet said, adding the bank’s situation is alright, despite a recent sell off of its shares. Shares in Societe Generale have lost more than half their value since early August.
Societe Generale plans to free as much as EUR4 billion in asset sales and cost cutting–which will include headcount reduction–by 2013. In a conference call with reporters, Oudea said the bank will lay off 2,000 employees in Russia alone.
Paris, September 12, 2011 (Dow Jones)
