FRANKFURT/BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - The trade union Verdi is calling on Postbank employees to protest against planned branch closures. According to Verdi on Monday, more than 2,000 employees are being asked to express their displeasure at the cuts planned by Postbank's parent company Deutsche Bank at works meetings in the coming days in Hamburg (November 7), Stuttgart (November 8) and Munich (November 9).

Deutsche Bank plans to close up to 250 of the 550 Postbank branches currently still in operation by mid-2026, as announced by Claudio de Sanctis, Head of Private Customers at the Frankfurt-based DAX-listed company, at the end of October. According to analyses, three quarters of Postbank customers hardly ever visit a branch. There was "no way around" job cuts, the manager recently told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS). The bank is negotiating the exact figures with employee representatives.

According to Verdi, there is "considerable unrest among the workforce and a complete lack of understanding for the branch closures planned by Deutsche Bank". Together with the General Works Council of Postbank Filialvertrieb AG, the union is demanding "measures to safeguard jobs and an early extension of the protection against dismissal under the collective agreement". Currently, compulsory redundancies at Postbank are excluded until January 31, 2024./ben/DP/ngu