Ulster Bank Employees In Fearful For Their Jobs
Thursday, 19 January 2012
About 20 employees working in the Ulster Bank branches in Ferbane and Tullamore are currently fearful for their jobs following the bleak announcement last week by their management.
Last week Ulster Bank announced that it was going to cut 950 jobs in Ireland with about 600 to be cut in the Republic and 353 being shed in Northern Ireland.
The bank wants to bring about the redundancies by the end of 2012 and it blamed the recession for the decision. The bank said it had to make its workers redundant this year in order to compete effectively in the Irish market.
Employees throughout the company are being asked to profer their names for voluntary redundancies and if there isn't a big enough take-up for this, management says it will proceed to compulsory redundancies.
The Midland Tribune tried to contact the managers of local branches of the bank but was told that all employees had been directed to channel all media queries to the bank's media relations section in Northern Ireland.
Local Councillor Eamon Dooley said there are about seven or eight people employed in the Ferbane branch and three of them are living in the Ferbane area. Tullamore councillor Seán O'Brien commented that there are 14 employees in the Tullamore branch.
'I spoke to one of the workers this morning,' commented Cllr O'Brien. 'He told me they have not been informed yet of any details there. I personally hope that the Tullamore branch will not be affected as it is an important financial institution in Tullamore.'
The bank said there are no plans to close any of its branches but it ominously added that this was a matter which would be kept under review.
The Irish Bank Officials Association said it was alarmed by the scale of the proposed job cuts.
The IBOA said it would seek a 'detailed analysis from management' of the rationale for the redundancies.
The job losses are part of a larger rationalisation by its parent group Royal Bank of Scotland, which earlier announced around 3,500 job losses over the next three years.
Ulster Bank has 1.9m customers on the island of Ireland and currently employs 6,000 staff.
Shortly after the bleak announcement last week IPTU's Adrian Kane said: 'The level of redundancies being sought by Ulster Bank is unacceptably high.
'SIPTU members will not accept compulsory redundancies, nor will we accept any out-sourcing of jobs.
'Redundancies must only be on a voluntary basis and severance terms must reflect industry norms.'
The union represents over 200 of the bank's employees in the Republic.
During a meeting between bank management and the trade union representing employees (the IBOA) held a few days ago the trade union urged senior management to revise its restructuring plan in order to save more jobs.
Following the meeting the union said that while it acknowledged that the bank continued to face major difficulties arising from the impaired loans authorised during the property boom, it could not accept that the solution proposed by management was in the long-term interests of the bank or its customers and staff.
'We outlined the profound sense of shock, anger and distress which the Bank's proposals had caused to staff - as well as the anxiety among customers who had contacted the union in the wake of the bank's announcement,' said IBOA general secretary Larry Broderick.
Subscribe to read full newspaper »
Send to a friend
Please complete the following form to inform a friend about this page.
