Job losses may spark bank strike

BANK OF IRELAND is seeking 2,100 redundancies from its 18,000 staff in Ireland and has said some of these will be compulsory if it cannot reach agreement on voluntary cuts.

However, members of the Irish Bank Officials Associations (IBOA) yesterday passed a resolution to hold a ballot on industrial action if the bank seeks compulsory job losses.

General secretary Larry Broderick said there were staff who would accept voluntary redundancy packages, but the IBOA could not accept compulsory losses given the bank would make €1.3bn in profits.