Bank workers not the sector's 'sacrificial lambs': IBOA

The Irish Bank Officials Association has said its members will not tolerate any demand for compulsory redundancies at AIB, after the bank annunced planned job losses of 2,000.

IBOA general secretary Larry Broderick said his members should not be the "sacrificial lambs of the banking sector" and called for the Government to put in place a jobs strategy for bank workers.

"We could see up to 6,000 jobs go over the next two years," he said.

He said he was appalled that the staff were just learning of their fate.

“I would have thought, given the seriousness of this and the fact that the vast majority of staff are not responsible for the mess that AIB is in, that courtesy would have been given to them and they would have been advised in advance,” he said.

Mr Broderick said the job losses were the equivalent of a major multinational pulling out of the country.

Mr Broderick called for a meeting with Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore over the banking sector plans.

“This is a major, major blow for many, many families in Ireland today,” he told RTE Radio.

He said achieving the redundancies on a voluntary basis would be extremely difficult, but claimed it could be done.

But he said he would like the period for the cuts to be extended to three years.

AIB executive chairman David Hodgkinson said branch closures were not being contemplated as part of the projected job losses, with most of them achieved through voluntary redundancies.

He said the job losses would be spread across the organisation as the bank needs to "slim down".

“We expect to get the vast majority on a voluntary basis,” he told RTE Radio. “The first thing we have to do is to agree with our major stakeholder, the Government, on what is appropriate and then we will start the consultation period with the union.”

Mr Hodgkinson said he believed the bank should be "reasonably generous" to staff facing redundancy.

Brendan Howlin, the Minister for Public Sector Reform and Expenditure, said it was a bleak day for bank workers.

“It is clear that there is going to be a considerable downsizing of the banking sector in Ireland, that’s true and that will involve job losses,” Mr Howlin said.

“It already has involved job losses for an awful lot of people. I think what people want now generally is some level of certainty.”

Mr Howlin said the decision to restructure the banking sector was the beginning of that process.