Labour relations

The Group's relations with Trade Unions are based on the principles of fairness and respect of roles, in compliance with regulations, in order to set up new agreements to increase growth, competitiveness and sustainable employment.

The exchange of opinions and the search for shared solutions together with Trade Unions - aimed at safeguarding the personnel involved under the occupational, professional and economic-regulatory profile - have constantly guided our Group’s operational and corporate reorganisation processes.

The Group has been characterised since its inception by a complex welfare system that was developed also through discussion with Trade Unions; the agreements at Group level - which find their synthesis in the Second Level Collective Agreement, renewed on 8 December 2021 - are integrated with those regulated by national collective bargaining, offering all employees:

• a complex system of guarantees - supplementary pension funds and supplementary health care 
• flexible solutions aimed at work-life balance - through permits, leave, flexible working hours, part-time options, etc.
• subsidies and economic contributions, such as benefits for families with disabled children, out of the workplace accident policies, loans, mortgages, meal vouchers and scholarships.
  

During the years, the “Welfare, Safety and Sustainable Development Committee”, composed by company and trade union representatives, has promoted a series of measures and interventions that have subsequently found their concrete realization in specific trade union agreements, such as the agreement for the introduction of the Flexible Work, the agreement on the conciliation of life-work balance, with instrument such as the "Time Bank" (time reserve made available to colleagues in difficulty) and the inclusion agreement which aims to promote a condition of well-being for all the people of the Group in respect of diversity, developing specific projects, for example in the context of Disability Management through an Interfunctional Working Group. This operates with the aim of promoting attention to people with disabilities ascertained upon entry and who are already employees, seeking suitable solutions for a positive organization of work, to guarantee training, for the possible adaptation of work spaces and tools, to contribute the management of diversity and uniqueness, identifying areas for improvement and positive actions to be implemented to increase the organizational and personal well-being of colleagues.

Overtime work. Intesa Sanpaolo has specific internal rules in place (in compliance with local rules). The actual daily working time remains fixed, as a rule, at 7 hours and 30 minutes, and, overtime is admitted only in specific and justified cases, approved by the Head of each office. In addition, with the new renewal of the National Contract the working week will be reduced to 37 hours on a weekly basis starting from July 2024. 

The relations with the Trade Unions are also regulated by the Labour/Management Relations Protocol, which has made it possible to implement a specific union relations model within the Group. Dialogue with the Trade Unions regarding company projects is ongoing, prompt and aimed at identifying shared solutions to the various requirements that come to the attention of the Parties. This also takes place in accordance with trade union representation in Italy (76.13% of current employees), in line with national representation in the sector. In 2023, 41 agreements were signed, the most innovative of which covered work organisation, with the introduction of the so-called short week (4x9), and renewed Flexible Working methods, with the establishment of an annual ceiling of 120 days of work from home, which can be increased in specific cases.

Attention continued to be paid to the integrated welfare system, with particular regard to Supplementary Pension Schemes and Health Care, as well as to the institutional renewal of the corporate body responsible for cultural and sports recreational activities of the Group’s employees.

The Group's welfare has recently been enriched with the establishment of a new Third Sector body, the Mutual Aid Society, which promotes mutualistic values ​​and social solidarity. Among the first objectives of the organization are support for members who find themselves in disadvantaged or difficult conditions, Long Term Care insurance coverage in favor of family members not covered by the Supplementary Health Fund and support for non-self-sufficient disabled children of Group's people.

The agreements reached make it possible to further enhance and expand the welfare tools for the benefit of the Intesa Sanpaolo employees and their families, to improve the effectiveness of the company’s organisation and to define sustainable and differentiated labour policies even in different working life phases, such as to create cohesion and solidarity among the different generations in the Group. The Welfare, Safety and Sustainable Development Committee set up following the Labour/Management Relations Protocol continued to play a key role in 2023. This bilateral body, which adequately represents both the company and the Trade Unions, is supplemented each time by technical experts that are able to offer specific expertise on the issues in question.

Since 2015, Flexible Work has been the smart working model of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group. From the experimental phase to the consolidation as an ordinary way of performing the work activity, Flexible Work gradually involved a growing number of structures and people, proving to be a successful experience in the organization of work and a effective intervention tool to guarantee operational continuity as occurred in the emergency context relating to COVID-19.

In line with the 2022-2025 Business Plan, following the union agreement of 26 May 2023, the highly innovative measures of the new model of work organization were integrated and expanded, for all Group's people, in terms of greater flexibility in daily working hours, in terms of the so-called short week on voluntary basis (with a daily working time of 9 hours for 4 days a week between Monday and Friday) with equal pay and broad access to Flexible Work.

Flexible Work is a way of working which allows, on a voluntary basis, to work in a place different than that of assignment, i.e.

• from home (up to a maximum of 120 days per year with the recognition of a meal voucher worth €4.50)
  
• from a company location other than the assigned one ("company hubs")
• from our customer's premises.

The Second Level Collective Agreement of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group contains a series of measures aimed at facilitating work-life balance, including the Banca del tempo (Time Bank), that is an annual pool of paid leave hours in favour of employees who need more leave hours than those they are already entitled to, in order to deal with personal and / or family serious and ascertained situations.

For all the Group personnel, with the exception of Risk Takers and Middle Managers, to whom specific incentive systems apply, a trade union agreement was entered into on 30 May 2023 for the payment of the 2023 Broad-based Short-Term Plan (PVR) with both distribution-ownership purposes, aimed at enhancing the contribution provided collectively to the achievement of the year’s results and to the achievement of the 2022-2025 Business Plan objectives, and with incentive purposes, in order to reward the team’s merit and performance. The 2023 PVR, which rewards increased profitability, productivity, innovation, quality and greater efficiency, confirms the principles of inclusion, merit and orientation towards sustainable results in the medium-long term as central values, in relation to the Business Plan. According to a redistribution logic, following the Bank’s excellent results, the Group will increase the total amount allocated to the 2023 PVR to 155 million euro (116 million euro in 2022), 25 million euro of which coming from the experimental incorporation into the incentive policy of the Protection Excellence System, which until now had not been subject to negotiation. The base bonus amount paid ranges from a minimum of 1,020 euro to a maximum of 2,750 euro, to which the excellence bonus units will be added. The 2023 PVR consists of two portions:

• Base Bonus, paid according to the professional role or seniority level, consisting of a fixed fee for all employees and an additional fee for income up to 37,000 euro
• Excellence Bonus, paid based on distinctive individual performance and team goals, consisting of two portions, one of which is dedicated solely to Network personnel involved in the provision of insurance products. In 2023 as well, employees who were absent for long periods of time continued to be eligible to participate in the Plan.

In addition, confirming the importance that the issues of assistance and services for families and work-life balance have in the Group’s policies, employees once again had the option of requesting that all or part of their 2023 PVR be recognised in the form of welfare services, taking advantage of the opportunities that the tax regulations in the area of workplace productivity remuneration offer employees year by year. Finally, with the agreement dated 9 June 2023, the Insurance Division personnel was paid a Variable Additional Bonus (PAV) and a Social Bonus.

In addition to these tools, in order to enhance the commitment and involvement of all Group’s people to the achievement of the financial, equity and sustainability objectives of the 2022-2025 Business Plan, the Group confirmed the use of Long-term Incentive Systems aligned with the time horizon of the same Plan and broken down by purpose, instruments and clusters. Specifically, two new long-term Incentive Plans were launched for all employees:

• the Performance Share Plan (PSP) reserved for the Management (including the Managing Director and CEO, the remaining Group Top Risk Takers and other Group Risk Takers) and based on shares paid on a fixed basis upon the achievement of specific performance objectives;
• the LECOIP 3.0 Long-Term Incentive Plan intended for professionals in Italy and based on Certificates with Intesa Sanpaolo shares as underlying.

These Plans, albeit according to different mechanisms depending on their respective cluster, include the ESG – Environmental, Social and Governance dimension (see page 56 – paragraph “Remuneration” in the chapter “Governance and risk management”). More specifically, the LECOIP 3.0 Plan, entered into with the Trade Unions in 2022, in continuity with the previous editions and to which around 45,600 Professionals participated, entailed the free assignment of Intesa Sanpaolo shares and allows the accrual of a capital greater than the initial investment, depending on the positive performance of the Intesa Sanpaolo share, inclusive of a minimum 4% return linked to the achievement of specific Group ESG objectives, calculated as a fixed percentage of the capital initially allocated.

Since 2015, the Group and the trade unions have shared the introduction of a Variable Result Bonus (VRB) which has integrated the component relating to the productivity of the staff as a whole into a single bonus with incentive systems aimed at enhancing excellent performance, providing for increasing recognition for the achievement of the expected objectives.

The company cooperates with the Trade Unions to define corporate training plans aimed not only at obtaining professional skills and complying with legal regulations, but also at enhancing the value of human resources.

The training activities’ targets include providing guidance and promoting individuals, as a growth factor of the company community.

These corporate training plans are frequently the subject of evaluation by the Welfare, security and Sustainable Development Committee, followed by specific arrangements with the trade unions aimed at seizing the financing opportunities offered by the Fondo Banche e Assicurazioni.

The renewal of the second level collective agreement, which took place on December 8, 2021, allowed for the confirmation and implementation of some tools in the field of conciliation, inclusion and sustainable development.