Finance union fears for future of 200 IT jobs

IBOA, the finance union, is concerned that the jobs of up to 200 IT staff working on the Bank of Ireland contract at Hewlett Packard may be in jeopardy after the bank confirmed today that it will not renew the contract with HP when it expires early next year.

IBOA General Secretary, Larry Broderick, said today that his members are fearful that regardless of which of the two remaining companies – HCL and IBM – eventually wins the competition for the contract, it may be decided to reduce staff numbers in Ireland by exporting most of the work abroad.

Mr Broderick said: "While our members would normally expect to transfer with the work - as they did when the work was originally contracted out of Bank of Ireland - they are seriously concerned that the new contractor may opt to use workers based overseas in low cost economies.

"As a trade union, IBOA naturally has major concerns for the livelihoods of our members and their families - especially as many of them have considerable experience working for or on behalf of Bank of Ireland.

"But we also believe that there is a very important issue of public policy at stake here. The taxpayers of Ireland have made a considerable commitment at an extremely difficult time in order to support Bank of Ireland through its current crisis.

"It would be an unacceptable display of ingratitude if the Bank were to repay that support by contriving to export highly skilled work out of this country at a time of mass unemployment."