EBS staff to strike on Tuesday over ‘bonus’

MORE than 300 EBS staff are to hold a one-day strike next Tuesday at branches across the country over the withholding of a traditional Christmas bonus.

The workers, members of the Unite trade union, are taking the action at the financial institution after it emerged that they will not receive the extra payment, which is equivalent to one month’s salary and which they say has been paid to them every year for the last 45 years.

The workers are particularly angry that the payment will be made to managerial staff as a clause in their contracts means it is part of their pensionable salary.

The Department of Finance has prohibited any financial institution in state ownership — which includes EBS — from making any bonus payments without its approval.

The news that they were not to receive the money was only conveyed to the staff below assistant manager grade last week.

Unite trade union organised a ballot of the 300 staff among its membership. Of those, 84% participated in the strike vote returning a 98% majority in favour of action.

The union pointed out that, unlike management, their members were not given the option of making the bonus payment a part of their pensionable salary. Those workers, they said, presently earn less than €30,000, on average.

“We were given no notice that this payment was to be withheld,” said Unite regional officer Colm Quinlan. “When staff were advised last week that only managers would receive the payment, the level of anger was as strong as I have ever seen. The idea that the Department of Finance can decide the fate of Christmas in hundreds of households with no notice in advance is so wrong as to be unbelievable.”

As well as the strike action next Tuesday, pickets will be mounted at the EBS head office on Burlington Road, and branches at the Square shopping centre in Tallaght and on William Street in Limerick.

The union said the strike is the first phase of what could become more prolonged action unless the bonus is paid in full. It said it may extend the pickets to other branches and to EBS’s parent company AIB.

EBS said it understood the disappointment of staff but did not believe the industrial action was in the interest of its employees, customers or stakeholders.

The company said that it will continue to engage with Unite to try to avert the action.