Update 3:11pm – The Banco de Costa Rica confirmed this afternoon that 280 employees have accepted voluntary early retirement, upping the annual savings to ¢11.2 billion colones.
QCOSTARICA – Following a consulting report confirming that the bank has more employees that it needs to operate efficiently, the Banco de Costa Rica (BCR) confirmd the decision to cut its payroll by 250 employees.
The measure will save the bank some ¢9 billion colones a year.
The cut in payroll will cost the bank about ¢8.750 billion colones in severances pay, based on the employee’s time with the bank, according to Ernesto Feoli, head of Human Resources at the bank.
Feoli explained the severance pay represents a permanent yearly savings to the bank.
For example, employees with over 35 years of working at the bank, would be paid a severance of 35 months; employees with less time and choosing voluntary retirement would be paid according to the number of years worked.
The deadline for voluntary retirement was Wednesday.
Source: Telenoticias
As I understand matters, the employees’ union at Banco Nacional agreed to a wages and benefits reduction that preserved their jobs, while the BCR employees’ union did not agree to something similar. Presumably, if the BCR employees had agreed to a wage and benefits reduction, all, or at least a portion of the BCR employees now without jobs could have continued working. The Banco Nacional employee’s union appears to be the only responsible Public Sector Union in the Country.