Number employed: slight increase.
Conditions of employment:
no formal agreement.
The employees of the Bank numbered 28,688 on
the balance sheet date, compared with 28,381 a
year previously. The number employed in the
foreign service increased by 71 to 9,151while in
the domestic service the total increased by 236 to
19,537.
The number of jobs which the Bank is able to
provide depends first and foremost on the
growth of demand for its services and thus on
the resulting volume of work. Another factor of
importance is that, in order to enhance our
commercial power in a number of areas, e.g.
international finance and automation, an
increasing number of specialists must be
engaged.
Furthermore, in the domestic service, factors
such as the shorter working week and youth
schemes have an effect on employment. In the
foreign service, the gradual enlargement of the
branch network is leading to the creation of
more jobs.
Against these positive influences there are the
effects of increased efficiency and automation,
both of which are necessary for closer control of
labour costs.
The net result of these factors in the year under
review was a small increase in jobs, which was
enhanced by a higher number of persons leaving
our employ.
The growth of part-time employment in the
domestic service, a very important factor in
1984, was not sustained. It would seem that part-
time working has lost some of its attraction, and
in 1985, in order not to exacerbate the serious
decline in young applicants in recent years, we
were more frequently obliged to offer jobs of
more than 20 hours per week. A noteworthy
feature is that the majority of part-timers are
women. This is shown by the fact that while
women have for years represented 45% of the
total workforce, they account for something like
90% of the part-time staff.
The number of part-time staff is expected to
remain at about the present level for the next
few years.
The Bank was again able to make a contribution
to reducing youth unemployment, nearly 100
young people being engaged on a two-year train
ing contract.
The year passed without a collective labour
agreement for the banking industry. The nego
tiations broke down in September on the issue of
a further reduction of the working week. The
two sides were unable to agree on an increase in
the number of days of paid leave and a more
flexible manner of allotting these.
Faced with the threat of an impasse in 1986, the
Bank embarked on an experiment which
provides for limited flexibility in this respect. To
enable workload and available manpower to be
more closely matched, managers may depart
from the present system of allowing free time in
4-hour periods. After consultations with the
staff, it has been decided that in the first half of
1986, one or more hours of free time can be
granted at the beginning or end of the working
day. Where it is not feasible to take all or any
free time, as in the case of specialists who are in
short supply, leave for training purposes may be
given, or payment made, in lieu, but only on a
limited scale.
When the two sides could not come to terms in
56
Rise of employment in man-years.
