Financial Services Union Opposed To Closure of 27 Service Centres by Bank of Ireland

The Financial Services Union today expressed its opposition to the Bank of Ireland decision to close 27 service centres nationwide by the end of 2018.  Currently circa 420 employees work in these service centres throughout the Republic of Ireland.  While there will be opportunities for a proportion of staff to redeploy in the Bank their future is unclear and this is a major concern for FSU and their members. 

According to FSU Senior Industrial Relations Officer Maeve Brehony, “The Financial Services Union is opposed to this announcement by the Bank of Ireland.  Our primary concern is for our members continued employment in the counties and communities they have loyally served for many years.   FSU have been challenging the Bank on staffing levels throughout the retail network for a considerable time now.  We simply do not accept that a significant number of job losses is tenable.”

FSU General Secretary, Dermot Ryan, said, “We have an agreement in place with Bank of Ireland that any redundancies will be on a voluntary basis.  However, this shouldn’t be taken to mean that we will accept any level of redundancy once it adheres to that agreement.

“A narrow focus on short-sighted cost reductions is bad for staff, bad for customers and bad for the communities they serve.  Achieving commercial goals, in a profitable bank like Bank of Ireland, need not entail closing service centres and proposing significant job losses.  In the coming weeks our Union will be making this clear to Bank of Ireland and we will be fighting to retain our members’ jobs.”