ACCBank to cut 200 jobs

ACCBank is to close 16 branches, resulting in the loss of 200 jobs, it was announced today.

In an announcement to employees earlier today, CEO Rob Hartog said the global financial crisis, sharp deterioration in the Irish economy and collapse of the Irish property market had severely impacted the bank’s financial performance in 2008.

The cuts aim to reduce both payroll and non-payroll costs by a minimum of 30% per annum.

"We are in volatile times with global financial systems in a period of radical change, and the broader Irish economy unlikely to recover for at least another two years," said Hartog.

"These measures reflect the need to prioritise where we use our skilled resources at this time, and our anticipation that 2009/2010 will continue to be difficult."

The 200 job losses will occur at both the bank’s head office in Dublin and across the branch network, with the 16 branches closing on a progressive basis between October 2009 and April 2010.

The remaining nine business centres will be located at Cork, Dublin, Drogheda, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, Mullingar, Sligo, and Waterford.

The bank will restructure other roles and introduce a severance package. Employees are expected to begin departing the organisation from July.

ACCBank has been engaged in a consultation process with trade unions SIPTU and Unite for a number of weeks and said that this process will continue.

The bank also said that it will establish an Employee Consultation Forum for those staff who are not members of a union.

"The decision to implement these changes at ACCBank has been a very difficult one to make, and we will be working with trade unions and employee representatives to determine how best to implement them over the next few weeks," said Hartog.

ACC was set up by the State in 1927 as the Agricultural Credit Corporation and began focusing on other sectors outside farming in the late 1980s before being bought by Rabobank.

Unite, which represents more than 100 workers at the bank, said the redundancies would have a devastating impact on workers who helped create the company.

“We will negotiate a package for those who will lose their jobs and security for those who remain, commensurate with the fact that the bank’s parent company made a profit in 2008 of €2.8bn,” said Frank Maunsell, regional officer with the trade union.