Nordea’s Estonian employees to picket Stockholm headquarters
Employees of Nordea’s Estonian branch announced that they will picket outside the bank’s headquarters in Stockholm on Saturday to protest against the bank’s decision to end negotiations over a collective agreement.
All the employees are members of a trade union that announced the protest in Stockholm.
“The aim of the picket is to draw the attention of the Swedish public to [the bank’s] cowboy capitalism, and how differently this Swedish company treats its employees in Sweden and in Estonia,” union representative Tarmo Kase told ERR’s Estonian news portal.
Of Nordea’s Estonian staff, 69% are members of the trade union.
Employees deposited a petition with the management of the parent company in Stockholm on Dec. 19. In it, they ask the bank to stop violating the law by concealing information regarding employees from the trade union, interfering with its internal affairs, and work against employees joining the union.
The petition also asks the bank to include employees in its decision-making processes concerning human resources in the future. It was signed by 70% of the staff of Nordea’s Estonian branch.
At present, no member of the bank’s management has agreed to meeting the protesters.
Nordea interrupted its negotiations with employees in November, saying that they would be ready to discuss the collective agreement in question earlier once its merger with the Estonian branch of DNB had taken place. The bank also cited “substantial differences” in the understanding of the terms and purpose of the collective agreement as a reason to suspend the talks.
Editor: Editor: Dario Cavegn
