The Spanish bank Caixabank announced on Monday that it will reduce its workforce by around 9 percent in order to improve efficiency.

Caixabank said it will carry out a restructuring process in order to improve efficiency and adapt to the current market needs, which significantly deteriorated because of the bursting of the housing bubble and the ongoing economic crisis in Spain.

One of the main unions in Spain, Comisiones Obreras (CCOO), said Caixabank is one of the healthiest banks in Spain's financial sector and describes the cost cutting program as "excessive."

The unions and Caixabank will start negotiating over the proposal on Thursday. Caixabank hopes to resolve many of the dismissals (around 2,000) via voluntary redundancies and early retirement.

Last year saw the number of workers in Caixabank increase by 5,632 to 32,625 in one year due to acquisitions of other financial entities, namely Banca Civica, Caixa Girona and Bankpyme, to which Banco de Valencia must be added as a result of its acquisition in 2013.

Also the number of branches increased from 5,196 in 2011 to 6,342 in 2012, making Caixabank the bank with most branches in Spain. Around 10 percent of branches are expected to close.

Caixabank had already announced they would cut around 12 percent of their workforce (up to 4,000 jobs) five days ago, making this restructuring plan the second biggest one after Bankia announced they would cut around 4,000 jobs.