Several labour unions representing workers of BNP Paribas Fortis bank filed a joint strike notice on Tuesday in response to the French-owned bank's plans to outsource part of the Belgian branch's customer services activities.
The strike notice will be in place from 28 February to 1 January 2026. The workers oppose plans to outsource the staffing and activities of its "client service centre" and to transfer them to Belgian branch of Accenture. Over 600 of the bank's full time employees would be affected by the decision and many of the administrative tasks of the bank would be transferred to the professional services multinational.
Unions have reacted angrily to the plans, describing them as "disguised restructuring." The service centre is responsible for money laundering protections and monitoring the bank's credit portfolio.
"We will soon begin organising [strike] action," Muriel Montignies, co-chair of the committee of the CNE labour union, told Le Soir.
BNP Paribas Fortis says that many of the centre's services will be transferred to an IT platform developed by Accenture, which will manage many of the bank's tasks with artificial intelligence, robotics, and other workflow management tools. Accenture already manages customer service for 28 other European banks.
Labour representatives have refused to negotiate a collective labour agreement with the bank. When strike action begins, this could result in a similar staffing crisis experienced by Delhaize following the backlash to its 2023 franchising plans.
