NIB staff fear job cuts as Australian parent revamps

Bank staff fear jobs may go at National Irish Bank (NIB) as a result of restructuring at its Australian parent. The Irish Bank Officials' Association (IBOA) has expressed concern over potential job losses at NIB and Northern Bank as part of Positioning for Growth programme at National Australia Bank.

More than 500 jobs are to be cut from the group's European operations, which includes NIB in the Republic and Northern Bank in Northern Ireland.

"IBOA has sought and been refused guarantees on job security for staff at NIB. The Positioning for Growth programme, which is the third business restructuring in National Australia Group in three years, will cut job numbers and is also going to lead to a 13 per cent reduction in front-office services," said IBOA assistant general secretary Mr John O'Connell.

The restructuring marks an acceptance by National Australia Bank that it will have to shelve long-held ambitions to make further acquisitions in the UK and Ireland and is instead pinning its hopes of lifting revenue growth on its existing operations, in particular wealth management. A total of 2,050 jobs or 5 per cent of the workforce will be cut at the group, which the bank said would be offset by the creation of 1,400 positions, redeployment and natural attrition. A total of 1,500 jobs will be cut from its Australian operation with the remainder coming in Europe.

A spokeswoman said the restructuring would take place over the next 18 months, but could not provide details on how the cuts would affect Ireland. However, she said the bank expected to create 300 jobs in Britain and Ireland as part of the restructuring, leaving net job losses of 200 staff.

Mr O'Connell said the IBOA was seeking a clear and comprehensive statement from the management of NIB, guaranteeing staff jobs and a commitment to dealing with change in consultation and negotiation with the union. He added that the IBOA would oppose any compulsory redundancies in the bank's Irish operations.

The IBOA also described National Australia's decision not to earmark money for the development of the Irish operations as "totally unacceptable".

A total of 90 million Australian dollars (€54.2 million) has been set aside by the group to develop further the wealth management operation in Britain and Aus$95 million to upgrade IT systems for customer-facing staff in Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks.

But the spokeswoman said the lack of earmarked investment funds did not indicate that the group did not have long-term plans for Ireland. Both the savings targets and the job losses were lower than many analysts had expected.