Banco Montepio Staff and Retirees Secure a 3 Percent Rise, and the 30 November Strike There Is Called Off, Leaving Millennium bcp Without an Announced Deal

Banco Montepio has agreed a 3 percent rise in salaries and bank pensions for 2026 with four bank staff unions, and the unions have cancelled the strike and the protest they had planned at the bank. The deal leaves Millennium bcp as the one large bank where no 2026 pay agreement has been announced.

The agreement was announced in a joint communiqué dated 4 November and signed by the Sindicato Nacional dos Quadros e Técnicos Bancários (SNQTB, the national union of bank managers and technical staff), the Sindicato Nacional dos Trabalhadores da Banca, Seguros e Tecnologias (SBC), the Sindicato dos Trabalhadores do Setor Financeiro de Portugal (SBN) and Mais Sindicato. The unions describe the talks as "weeks of demanding negotiations" from positions that were "difficult to bring together".

What the Montepio deal covers

According to the communiqué, the deal raises by 3 percent:

• the salary tables in the Montepio Geral collective agreement (ACT, Acordo Coletivo de Trabalho);
• the retirement pensions paid under that agreement;
• the agreement's other cash clauses (in Portuguese, "cláusulas de expressão pecuniária").

ECO reports that the rise is backdated to 1 January 2026 and that staff should receive it this month, with their November salaries. The communiqué itself does not give a payment date, and it does not publish new figures for the minimum salary levels or allowances.

The terms match the deal the same four unions reached on 27 October with the Associação Portuguesa de Bancos (Portuguese Banking Association, APB) and the Crédito Agrícola mutual banks, which covers novobanco, Banco Santander and BPI among others. We reported that agreement on 29 October, when the 30 November strike was called off everywhere except at Montepio and Millennium bcp. The banks had first offered 2 percent; the unions said that left pay and pensions behind the cost of living.

The strike at Montepio is off

The unions write that "taking this agreement into account, the demonstration and the strike scheduled for Montepio are cancelled". They credit the outcome to the support of bank workers, "active and retired", for the protests and the strike. When the UGT-affiliated unions called their strike in September, RTP reported that a protest outside Montepio and Crédito Agrícola had been set for 4 November, the same day as this communiqué.

What about Millennium bcp?

The 4 November communiqué does not mention Millennium bcp. The unions' 27 October communiqué said strike action stayed on the agenda only at institutions not covered by the deals, and ECO says it is still not known whether a similar agreement will be reached with bcp. No union communiqué we have seen has called off the 30 November strike there. RTP reported in the autumn that the unions had planned a protest outside Millennium bcp's head office on 25 November, and that the SNQTB had promised to make up the lost day's pay of members who strike, through its strike fund.

What it means for customers and staff

If you bank with Banco Montepio, there is no longer a strike to plan around on 30 November. Montepio staff and retired staff paid a pension under its collective agreement should see the 3 percent rise, and the back pay since January, with November's payment, according to ECO. Millennium bcp customers who need a branch that day, for a deed signing or to collect a card, should check with their branch nearer the date: a strike does not automatically close branches, and the effect depends on how many staff stop work.