Bank of Ireland strike set for tonight

The first in a possible series of strikes is to go ahead at Bank of Ireland's computer centre tonight.

Talks chaired by the Labour Relations Commission to resolve a dispute over outsourcing of the bank's IT operations broke down without agreement last night.

Around 300 employees at Bank of Ireland's ITSIS subsidiary are due to take part in the stoppage in protest at the bank's plans to outsource their work to the US computer giant Hewlett-Packard.

The bank has signed a seven-year contract with Hewlett-Packard, but the ITSIS staff have only been guaranteed work with the US multinational for two years.

The Irish Bank Officials Association was hoping that Bank of Ireland would agree to re-employ the workers if their jobs at Hewlett-Packard fell through, but a deal eluded both sides at the LRC last night.

They were invited to the LRC talks after the ITSIS employees rejected a proposal put forward by Bank of Ireland last week in an effort to avert the planned strike, which was originally due to go ahead on Monday.

Speaking afterwards, IBOA spokesman Larry Broderick said: "We have a meeting next week of our executive committee to see where we go from here, but obviously if the bank does not respond positively we will have no option but to escalate the action."