Angry customers spit at TSB bank workers

BANK workers who claim they were spat at by customers when news broke of a rise in interest rates by Permanent TSB have appealed to mortgage holders not to take their blame out on them.

Up to 50,000 homeowners will be affected by the decision to standard variable rates by 0.5% from Monday, and many expressed their anger on radio programmes and in bank branches yesterday.

The Unite trade union, which represents 1,000 workers at the bank, said its members were “bearing the brunt” of the public anger and were being physically attacked and spat on across the counter.

Representative Colm Quinlan said staff members did not get any communication about the decision until lunch time yesterday and were not briefed on “how to handle what was obviously going to be a very strong backlash from the general public”.

He said: “A number of Permanent TSB staff members have been spat at. Customers spat across the counter and said ‘this is the only way we can respond to it’. No one should have to face saliva in their faces.”

He added: “Most of the front-line staff are earning less than €30,000 a year. The staff are not the target.”

The bank’s chief executive, David Guinane, said he was “well aware of the disappointment and anger among customers”.

He said the decision was not made lightly but had to be taken because the cost of funding its mortgages was too expensive.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan rejected calls by the opposition to remove the state’s guarantee of capital to the bank if it went ahead with the move.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the increase was an abuse of the capital guarantee of the bank, funded by taxpayers: “Remember these banks now owe their very existence to the Irish taxpayer,” he said. “You can’t have a situation where banks, under the guarantee, are allowed to expand and extend their profits,” he added.

Labour’s justice spokesman, Pat Rabbitte, said: “Ordinary families expect the minister to call in the directors and chief executive of the banks and make plain that outside of European Central bank movements they do not want to see increases in the mortgage interest market at the moment.”

Galway West TD, Frank Fahey, indicated some of the unease about the move among Fianna Fáil backbenchers. He said the Department of Finance should “use every power at his disposal to put a stop to it”.

Mr Fahey said: “If Permanent TSB get away with this, then we will have Bank of Ireland and AIB and anyone else putting their rates up as well.

“It is unacceptable for the Irish banking system now to take the unilateral action to start increasing rates themselves.”

He said: “It’s got to the point where ordinary people have to stand up to the banks. There is an amount of bullying going on by the banks now of their customers, and I’m talking about their best customers, not the people who were in difficulty. If we do not stand up to this kind of move then the banks might as well take over altogether.”