TSB workers to pocket €80,000 each in tax-free windfall

UP to 1,000 TSB bank staff will pocket a tax-free windfall of over €80,000 each following a share deal agreed prior to the merger of the company with Irish Life and Permanent.

Under the deal signed before the company's merger in April 2001, former Trustee Savings Bank employees will enjoy a yearly cash bonanza of €12,700, tax free, for at least the next six years. Details of the windfall were sent to staff in the past fortnight.

More than 1,300 former Irish Permanent staff received a one-off taxable payment of just €12,700 in a separate deal three years ago.

The payout to TSB staff is based on an average allocation of 6,000 shares per worker at an initial price of €13.825 per share.

Only bank staff and the State benefited financially from the €430 million sale of the bank, with the Exchequer netting all but 14.9% (employee stake) of the sale price.

A spokesman for Permanent TSB said customers were not included because it was a deal to compensate workers for changes in work practices "as happens across the economy". "This is about working terms and conditions of employment."

He said it was up to the Government, then involved in the Employee Share Ownership Trust (ESOP) negotiations, to look after the customers if it saw fit.

The spokesman also said the company was not expecting any bitterness among its 1,300-plus former Irish Permanent staff, when the first tranche of payments are released to TSB staff in July. Irish Permanent staff received a one-off taxable payment of just €12,700 in a separate deal.

Yesterday, a Mandate spokesperson, one of three unions involved in the ESOP negotiations three years ago, said he was "extremely happy" the deal they had struck was finally baring fruit.

The ATGWU, who along with SIPTU were also involved in the deal, said staff had earned every penny of the windfall.

Permanent TSB has around 110 branches nationwide.