Ulster Bank accused of treating staff 'very shabbily'

Ulster Bank branch employs 2,800 people in the Republic of Ireland. Picture: Dan Linehan

The general secretary of the Financial Services Union (FSU) John O’Connell has accused Ulster Bank of treating its staff “very shabbily”.

Staff had been kept in the dark and they now needed clarity and certainty, he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.

Mr O’Connell called on Ulster Bank CEO Jane Howard to give staff certainty that when loans and work transferred to new owners, that the jobs would “go with them”. 

“This is a very bad morning for Ulster Bank staff,” Mr O'Connell said. 

There were 2,800 jobs in the Republic and 600 further jobs in Northern Ireland at stake, he said.

Protecting those jobs must be a priority for the parent company Nat West, for the companies interested in taking on the loan books and for the Minister for Finance.

He said there must be “a clear strategic plan”.

The FSU was studying the proposals and was expecting to receive the memorandum of understanding later today, which would be examined in great detail.

There was “a little bit of time to get this right” he added. The maximum number of jobs should be transferred with the loan books, he said, that should be central to any transfer of the business sections.