Goodbye to Santander’s ‘bans’
Telecoms & Financial Services September 5 2017The CWU has welcomed a major re-organisation in Santander which will see the legal ownership of Isban, Produban and Geoban transfer to Santander UK at the start of the New Year.
Employees at all three subsidiaries will be incorporated into two new subsidiary companies – Santander Technology and Santander Operations – both of which will be directly accountable to the UK bank, rather than Madrid, as part of the Santander UK’s drive to become a fully digitally enabled bank that is more aligned and responsive to the needs of UK customers than ever before.
Assurances have been sought and received by the CWU that there will be no adverse effect on terms and conditions as part of the re-organisation and that no job losses will stem from the move – which will see the Isban, Produban and Geoban names cease to exist in the UK by January 1.
For members in Geoban UK and Isban UK the immediate practical effect of the change in legal ownership will be little more than a name change. For members in Produban, however, the reorganisation will initially require a TUPE transfer into Isban – and the CWU is poised for negotiations to commence on that within days.
Assistant secretary John East explains: “We’ve already secured a commitment that no jobs are at risk.
“Indeed, the CWU is optimistic that the longer-term effect of the absorption of Produban into Isban and the legal transfer of ownership of the combined Technology provider to Santander UK will be extremely positive for the UK workforce.
“For some time we’ve been talking to both Isban and Produban about increasing their directly employed headcount on account of their heavy reliance on contractors. While progress on that has been held up by what’s been going on in the background, Santander has told us that objective remains unchanged.
“We’ve also received assurances that both Bootle and Carlton Park are regarded as key long-term sites for the work currently conducted by Isban and Produban, which is welcome news given the CWU’s concerns that both were being run down under the Spanish chain of command.”
John concludes: “With Santander UK now taking on full responsibility for developing its own systems, rather than adapting systems that have fundamentally been developed in Spain, there’s clearly going to be a lot more systems development work conducted in the UK, and that can only be good news for our members in the new UK-led Santander Technology subsidiary.
“There are strong grounds for optimism that the cumulative effect of this reorganisation will mean more fulfilling work, added long-term job security and hopefully new jobs in Bootle and Carlton Park as well.”