By Brazil Stock Guide – The Itaú Unibanco Holding SA (ITUB4) employee committee met bank executives for a second time on Sept. 15 to demand the reversal of recent mass layoffs, according to Investing.com, cited by Investing.com. More than 1,000 staff were dismissed on Sept. 8, many of them working remotely.
Itaú said the cuts followed a four-month review of employees’ “digital activity” during remote work, comparing formal working hours with overtime requests. The bank said some employees logged as little as 20% digital activity on certain days, while still claiming overtime. According to Itaú, an acceptable rate is 75%, already accounting for breaks.
Dismissed employees, the bank added, had digital activity levels far below team averages — between 27% and 37% in departments where peers exceeded 70%. “This decision is part of a responsible management process and aims to preserve our culture and relationship of trust,” Itaú said in a statement.
Unions argue the bank is weaponizing the monitoring system to dismantle remote work arrangements agreed in collective bargaining. Juvandia Moreira, president of Contraf-CUT: “We were never informed of this type of monitoring and, worse, the bank did not grant employees the right to contest or defend themselves.” She added: “The bank wants to end remote work and found a disrespectful way to do so.”
The bank has agreed only to review dismissals of ill employees, while defending the other cuts as justified by “low adherence to telework.” Labor groups call the practice “digital harassment,” noting employees had no chance to oppose the surveillance.
The dispute comes as Itaú reports record earnings: a net income of 41.4 billion reais in 2024, up 16.2% from 2023, and quarterly profits of 11.1 billion reais and 11.5 billion reais in the first two quarters of 2025, respectively.
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