SIPTU to resist any attempt to change AIB pensions

SIPTU has said that any attempts by management at AIB to change workers' pension schemes will be resisted by the union.

AIB announced in an internal email to staff today that it would be cutting the pay of senior managment - and freezing the pay of all staff until 2014.

The email from chief executive David Duffy also said changes would be made to pensions this year.

He said the cost of continuing to provide a large number of AIB staff with a Defined Benefit Pension had become "prohibitively expensive".

SIPTU says the move marks a serious deterioration in the relationship between staff and management - and that it could be interpreted as a way of persuading some workers to take voluntary redundancy.

The Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA) meanwhile said the moves are "totally unacceptable" in view of the substantial savings AIB had already made on staff costs.

“If implemented, the bank’s latest proposals would further erode our members’ living standards at a time when AIB staff are being asked to make even more sacrifices in the most far-reaching restructure in the bank’s history," said IBOA General Secretary Larry Broderick.

"Around 2,000 men and women have already left AIB since 2008 as a result of the non-replacement of retiring employees and the non-renewal of temporary staff.

"The bank has also recently announced its intention to seek a further 2,500 job reductions over the next two years."