2,000 jobs to be shed over 18 months but few branch closures on the cards

AIB has confirmed its intention to shed more than 2,000 jobs over the coming year-and-a-half, as it looks to continue cutting its operating costs, but the bank is not envisaging any significant closures in its branch network.

News of the job cuts came as no real surprise, yesterday, and their detail was pretty much in line with speculation.

AIB’s executive chairman David Hodgkinson said most of the redundancies would, hopefully, be agreed on a voluntary footing and phased in over the remainder of 2011 and over the course of 2012. However, he said some mandatoryredundancies may occur, if necessary.

Most of these jobs will come from AIB’s Irish-based workforce, which numbers around 12,000.

The bank has alreadyreduced its Irish workforce by 1,300 people in the past two years — largely through natural attrition — and is targeting further staff cost reductions of 20%, through these cuts.

That would follow on from annual staff cost cuts of 5%, 8% and 14% in each of the last three years.

AIB is to be restructured into a core and non-core divisional bank, with the former main element largely focusing on its Irish customer base and being roughly half its current size by 2013.

However, the move has been criticised by trade unions. While welcoming the idea of a refocused bank, SIPTU said the restructuring of AIB shouldn’t have to lead to mass redundancies — adding that it is “immoral” that many frontline workers should be “sacrificed for the sins of senior management.”

Meanwhile, the Irish Bank Officials’ Association (IBOA), labelled the plan “an outrageous blow to staff”.

“These staff are more than collateral damage; they’re hard-working men and women with families who are facing a very bleak future, with few immediate opportunities for re-employment within the financial service sector in this country,” said IBOA general secretary Larry Broderick.

He said the IBOA was seeking an urgent meeting with the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste to consider the impact of the development — which, the IBOA said, “is the equivalent of a major multinational company pulling out of the country”.