AXA Group President Henri de Castries was challenged over the alleged sacking of several workers at AXA‘s offshore centre in Morocco for being union members by French EWC delegates.

De Castries responded that he had been advised that the workers in question were members of an illegal trade union and had resigned not been dismissed. However, due to the difference between the information received from Morocco he agreed that he would investigate the allegations and respond at the September EWC Bureau meeting.

Friends of the Earth Europe have produced a report called ‘Farming Money – How European Banks and private finance profit from food speculation and land grabs’. The report (which can be read here) contains details on role of AXA as well as the four largest UK banking groups.

AXA’s European Works Council is meeting in Rome with delegates attending from Belgium,  France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and the United Kingdom. Group CEO Henri de Castries addressed the employee representatives, explaining his vision for development of the group with much emphasis on technological evolution, especially the need to embrace the opportunities of the internet. He feels that the most technologically developed entities are the most successful and the challenge is to get traditional entities up to speed (or as he put it “the elephants need to run at the same speed as the antelopes”).

AXA Wealth have announced the loss of 74 roles in the CYFAS area of Bancassurance with 62 Financial Planning Managers losing their jobs.

These redundancies have come about due to productivity and cost issues in the Bancassurance market. Unite in AXA have been fully consulted about the changes to the business and would direct any member impacted to speak to their local union rep about any concerns they may have.