Bank of Ireland faces ‘mayhem’ in strike threat

BANK OF IRELAND could face a day of branch closures and ATM failures after its computer staff served strike notice last night.

The 24-hour stoppage will take place on Wednesday, July 23, unless negotiations to remove the threat are resolved in the next two weeks.

Bank of Ireland’s annual shareholder meeting takes place today and management is certain to face questions on the dispute.

While branch staff themselves are not going on strike there will be no computer staff available on the day of the action to support any breakdown in processing transactions and ATM machines.

Union spokesman Marty Whelan said although the branch network would be open, no one would be available to fix any problems. “It could be mayhem,” he said.

Bank of Ireland spokeswoman Anne Matthews confirmed the bank had received the strike notice last night.

“We are very surprised as another meeting had been scheduled for tomorrow,” she said. Ms Matthews declined to comment on how the withdrawal of IT backup would affect the bank’s operations.

Irish Bank Officials Association general secretary Larry Broderick said yesterday he hoped the strike could be avoided and that it would not impact on customers.

“It is regrettable it has come to this. The dispute marks a very serious deterioration between ourselves and Bank of Ireland.”

The origins of the dispute lie in the bank’s decision to outsource its IT services division to HP, formerly known as Hewlett Packard.

Three hundred staff based at the IT centre in Cabinteely in south Dublin would be transferring over to HP as part of the 556 million, seven-year deal.

When the deal was announced in April, 83% of Bank of Ireland’s IT union members voted for an all-out strike while 94% supported limited strike action.

Talks escalated over the past months, culminating in a meeting on Monday which ended without agreement.

The bank has offered IT staff two year’s job security and a 400 payment per year of service.

Mr Broderick described the loyalty payment as “derisory” yesterday but said the key issue was job security. “Money will not address the concerns out there.

The two years will facilitate the transition but then staff will be very vulnerable. They haven’t got the experience of working in an IT company,” he said.

The IBOA wants either seven-year contracts for staff or the option for redeployment after two years.

Pickets will be placed at the Bank of Ireland IT office in Cabinteely. Of the 300 staff affected, 220 are members of the IBOA.

The remainder were unlikely to cross pickets on the day of action, Mr Broderick said. The action could also escalate

into longer stoppages in subsequent weeks as the bank union would no longer be obliged to ballot its members.

Bank of Ireland made record profits of 1.2 billion last year. Today, chief executive Michael Soden and the remainder of the board are certain to be asked about the dispute.

Mr Broderick said the timing of the strike notice was coincidental as a deadline for negotiations expired on Monday.

In recent months, AIB and Ulster Bank have both successfully negotiated staff deals.