Bank of Ireland cut 230 UK jobs

Bank of Ireland is cutting 230 jobs at its operations in the North and Great Britain as part of a restructuring plan, it was announced today.

The redundancies form part of the 750-job reduction programme announced by the group in July under the restructuring plan agreed with the EU Commission in return for the injection of State funding by the Government.

The Irish Bank Officials' Association (IBOA) described the announcement as "profoundly disappointing, though not unexpected".

“Job cuts not only affect those who leave – but also those who remain,” said IBOA general secretary Larry Broderick. “IBOA’s aim is always to protect both – by securing the best possible redundancy terms and by ensuring that any potential adverse impact on continuing staff is kept to an absolute minimum.

“At the time of the bank’s original restructuring announcement in July, IBOA secured an agreement under the auspices of mediator, Mark Connaughton SC, that any job reductions should be implemented on a voluntary basis for IBOA members and in line with existing agreements between IBOA and the bank on voluntary severance terms – which provide for six weeks' pay per year of service plus statutory entitlements in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, subject to a cap of 2.5 years; and 6 weeks' pay per year of service inclusive of statutory in Great Britain.

“We understand that the areas most affected by today’s announcement will be Belfast departments responsible for business support activities whose functions are to be transferred to Dublin – while similar work currently undertaken London is to be transferred to Bristol.

“We will be meeting the Bank’s senior management tomorrow to ensure that appropriate redeployment options are available to staff who wish to remain with the Bank and also that the transfer of workloads does not adversely affect continuing staff.”