Ulster Bank denies former manager's claim of constructive dismissal

A FORMER Ulster Bank financial planning manager has claimed she was the subject of a “sinister” witch-hunt by the bank which forced her to resign.

The bank “categorically denied” the claims made by its former manager Martina McGreevy when the case opened at the Employment Appeals Tribunal in Dublin yesterday.

Rosemary Mallon for Ulster Bank said Ms McGreevy had resigned on the eve of a disciplinary hearing. Had the hearing gone ahead, and Ms McGreevy was unhappy with it, she could have gone to an appeal panel and could have followed that with an appeal to be heard by an independent person.

“It was not appropriate in the circumstances for her to resign at that point. She should have gone through the process,” Ms Mallon said.

Ms McGreevy, who lives in Dublin, is claiming she was constructively dismissed by the bank last year. She started working at Ulster Bank in January 2004 as a financial planning manager. She was later promoted to senior financial planning manager, one of only two employed by Ulster Bank, her barrister Conor Bowman said.

Her basic salary was €78,609 but she could also earn up to €40,000 a year in bonuses. In 2008, the bank began investigating the work of some financial planning managers. Ms McGreevy was contacted by a customer to say that she had received a “sinister” phone call from Ulster Bank, inquiring about her dealings with Ms McGreevy. The customer said she had been asked if she had been “coerced” into making her investment. The call was from a private number and the caller refused to provide his name, she said. The customer drove to her branch to express concern about this.

Mr Bowman said his client was being singled out in the investigation, with up to 15 of her clients being called. It was a witch-hunt to find paperwork irregularities that would allow the bank to sack her rather than make her redundant, he said. “It was a ploy by the bank in a financially difficult time.”

Ms McGreevy said she was bombarded with calls from her manager asking her for details on meetings with clients. She became suspicious of the bank’s behaviour and when she refused to take part in an informal fact-finding meeting, she was suspended. She later received a letter from the bank which referred to an investigation into the falsification of sales documents and the fraudulent claiming of sales credits.

One of the issues concerned the sale of €2 million worth of investment bonds to a couple from Co Cavan. Ms McGreevy was friendly with the older couple and they had opened a deposit account at the bank, with a view to making a major investment. Ms McGreevy then moved to a different part of the bank and asked that another colleague deal with the investment. She said the bank insisted that she handle it and told her not to worry about the paperwork, someone else would do it. The €2 million investment was made in 2007 and would have involved a bonus of €60-70,000 and an overseas trip, but Ms McGreevy said she did not receive any of this.

After she was suspended she agreed to take part in a disciplinary hearing if she could call certain witnesses. The bank had displayed “utter malice” in not facilitating this request, Mr Bowman said. Ms Mallon said the bank had agreed to certain witnesses and queried the relevance of others but Ms McGreevy did not respond. She said the bank had also said Ms McGreevy would be able to make submissions at the hearing, as to the relevance of calling two customers as witnesses.

Ms McGreevy sent a letter of resignation on March 25th, on the eve of that disciplinary hearing. “I felt it didn’t matter what I did. I wouldn’t get a fair hearing,” she said. The hearing will resume in June.