Commerzbank AG

Commerzbank and employee representatives have come to an agreement faster than originally anticipated regarding the integration of Dresdner Bank's employees and regional locations into Commerzbank. As planned, some 6,500 full-time positions in Germany will be eliminated in the course of the integration process. Back in March this year, the Bank and the employee representatives had completed the reconciliation of interests and social plan for the Frankfurt headquarters of Commerzbank and Dresdner Bank (including Dresdner Kleinwort).

Due to the most recent agreements, the original plan to make no operational redundancies before the end of 2011 can now be extended until 2013 if agreed goals are reached. "We aim to fully implement the measures related to the integration process, without redundancies for operational reasons," explains Ulrich Sieber, responsible for Human Resources and Integration on the Commerzbank Board of Managing Directors.

The aim is to offer as many employees as possible a new position if their current positions are cut due to the integration. To this end, a new job exchange centre for its some 64,700 employees is established additionally to the in-house career site on the intranet. The job exchange centre provides an overview of open positions within the Bank. Commerzbank is supporting employees who relocate as part of the integration process. For instance, it will reimburse travel costs and moving expenses or offer subsidies to those who need to have two domiciles.

"The negotiations were going well, thus we were able to reach this milestone faster than originally expected. We had to compromise, but all in all, we have reached an agreement we can build on," Sieber says. "I think it's particularly encouraging that the agreement is borne in equal parts by the Works Councils of Commerzbank and Dresdner Bank."