Threat of strike action looms at BoI

Workers at Bank of Ireland have been advised today that a share allocation bonus, agreed as part of a cost management programme which was delivered one year ahead of schedule, has been halved with no notice and an apparent disregard for agreed procedures.

Members of the Unite trade union who mounted the first picket at Bank of Ireland headquarters for ten years in November 2006 are considering a new ballot for industrial action up to and including withdrawal of labour in defence of their claim which was agreed as part of the banks ‘Strategic Transformation Programme’ three years ago.

Unite official Colm Quinlan said: "There is a sense of disbelief that we are back to square one with an organisation that at 9am delivers profits for last year of €1.8bn, and one hour later tears up an agreement on staff share allocation with the workers who have delivered those profits."

"There is a provision for going back to the Labour Relations Commission and we will do that with immediate effect but let there be no mistaking that if the agreement from 2005 is not reinstated in full that we will resort to the only means of communication which Bank of Ireland seem to understand, that of industrial action."