|
|
 |
 |
|
| |
|
| |
Katrin Lepp is a supervisor in the payments department at Nordea’s head office in Tallinn.
She began working at the Finnish-owned Union Bank ten years ago, and has since experienced the conversion first to Merita, then to Merita Nordbanken and now, most recently, to Nordea.
“At first, I didn’t really understand how large the organisation has become. I haven’t noticed any major changes in our everyday work, but of course new opportunities arise now when the bank has operations in so many countries,” she says.
Nordea is still growing in Estonia. The bank now has around 190 employees in different locations throughout the country.
The visit of the travel team from the Nordea Union Board to Tallinn in the autumn coincided opportunely with the bank’s annual gathering for its staff. This meant that almost all the staff received information on European Companies. After the meeting, an election was arranged in which Katrin and a colleague was chosen to visit the Nordea trade unions’ main seminar in Denmark.
“I am a person that likes things to be well-ordered and done correctly. I might be fairly well known in the organisation because of my everyday work area. Perhaps this is why I was elected,” she says.
There is no trade union for Nordea’s employees in Estonia.
“This is the normal situation here. The banking industry is rather new in Estonia. The first thing is to get the business going. Later, we may perhaps be able to do more and more things the Nordic way, but this is not something I know today.”
Work environment committee
In the autumn, however, a work environment committee was formed in accordance with Estonian law with two representatives from the staff and two from the management, and
Katrin Lepp is a member of this committee too.
“We haven’t really got started yet, but the idea is that we should discuss issues concerning the work environment, security of employment and other similar issues.”
The bank has been conducting annual personal development discussions with the staff for several years. These provide a forum in which to discuss each individual’s development opportunities, pay and other work-related issues.
“Salaries are not public,” says Katrin Lepp.
Highest pay level
She adds, however, that the finance sector has the highest general pay level of all the sectors in Estonia.
As far as other working conditions are concerned she regards them as “fair enough”. The staff is entitled to lunch benefits, working clothes for those who have regular contact with customers, favourable conditions for banking services and loans and so on.
“It would be good to get a general view of the way things are in other countries,” she says. She has a wait-and-see attitude to Nordea SE. No one knows yet what will happen or which countries will be included.
“There is a lot of talk about Nordic and non-Nordic countries in Nordea. I know that we are smaller, but if the objective is for us to become one Nordea then I would like you to stop talking in terms of Nordic and non-Nordic,” says Katrin Lepp.
Bengt Rolfer
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Printable version
