Up to 500 Bank of Ireland Life staff set to picket head office

UP to 500 staff at one of Bank of Ireland’s insurance subsidiaries are to picket the bank’s head office this morning.

In a dispute which threatens to escalate across the bank’s operations, the Life and New Ireland Assurance employees claim Bank of Ireland has refused to implement a Labour Court recommendation issued last month in relation to agreed merit based payments.

UNITE trade union said the affected workers have already taken a decrease in salary of 12% this year because of the non-payment of company related performance payments.

The trade union also claimed that while Bank of Ireland had already paid increases to the majority of staff under the national wage agreement, the Life and new Assurance employees, most of whom are on salaries of less than €30,000, had operated under a separate agreement since 2001.

“The arguments put by both sides were heard by the Labour Court,” said UNITE regional officer Colm Quinlan. “Its clear recommendation was that the bank should honour its agreement and engage with staff on payment of personal performance increases. No such engagement has taken place.

“This is completely unacceptable given that the State, which is supporting the bank with €3.5 billion of taxpayer funding, has a clear process for dispute resolution.”

“We have not yet escalated the dispute by calling for other staff to honour our pickets but they realise that if the bank is allowed to act with complete disregard for agreed procedures, and is willing to ignore the state’s own Labour Court recommendation then the long term future for staff relations is bleak.”

Bank of Ireland said it was disappointed the staff had resorted to the action particularly as that section of the business has posted a loss of €31m. “We believe it is not in the best interests of staff and the company to increase costs at this time and that maintaining rates of pay is the appropriate application of the Labour Court recommendation,” a spokeswoman said.

Meanwhile, UNITE which represents 900 of the 1700 staff working at Bank of Scotland has expressed anger at what it says is the bank’s unwillingness to communicate with staff over media speculation about the future of the business. It is demanding that the bank clarify the current position with regard to its review of operations.