MILAN (Reuters) - Unions at Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena have called a strike in protest at the painful restructuring plan announced by Italy's third-largest bank, which includes 4,600 job cuts, a union statement said on Thursday.
"We have already activated all the procedures for a strike," a joint statement from the five labour groups representing the bank's 31,000 workers said, describing the decision to cut 15 percent of its workforce and close 400 branches as unacceptable.
Monte dei Paschi, the world's oldest lender, announced the measures on Wednesday as part of a restructuring plan meant to shore up its financial strength. The bank has been forced to ask for 1.5 billion euros $1.87 billion (1.20 billion pounds) of state loans to meet capital requirements set by regulators.
The new management at the bank has faced mounting opposition from unions, which in March staged the first strike at the institution in 20 years, with thousands of workers taking to the streets of the medieval town of Siena, where the lender was founded in 1472.
The unions also attacked a decision by the bank to scrap regulations in the labour contract relating to promotions and pay. "It's a decision of incredible arrogance. They want to cancel in a document of two lines ... decades of labour achievements," the trade organisations said.
Monte dei Paschi is the first Italian bank to have to resort to state aid since 2010, having been hit hard by the deepening euro zone crisis because of its high exposure to sovereign debt.
Under the plan approved on Wednesday, the bank will sell 1.5 billion euros of new special bonds to the Italian treasury and said it would be looking to new investors as it seeks to raise up to 1 billion euros in new equity capital.
(Reporting by Antonella Ciancio; Editing by David Goodman)