Siptu to meet over B of I dispute

Siptu is to meet today to decide what action it will take at Bank of Ireland in a dispute over a stock-issue scheme.

Siptu is to meet today to decide what action it will take at Bank of Ireland in a dispute over a stock-issue scheme.

Finance union IBOA this week announced that some 6,000 staff at Bank of Ireland are to stage a 24-hour strike on July 8th in a dispute over the scheme.

The IBOA said yesterday the action was being timed to coincide with the AGM of Bank of Ireland.

IBOA general secretary Larry Broderick said that as part of a productivity deal agreed in 2005, employees were to get up to 6 per cent of salary in stock and a reduction of the working week in return for co-operation with major change.

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He said that earlier this year the Bank of Ireland management had decided to cut the bonuses promised to staff to 3 per cent rather than 6 per cent in stock.

The IBOA warned the work stoppage was the first step in a campaign to force the bank to honour the terms of productivity deal. Mr Broderick said the union could go to its members for a mandate for an all-out strike if no progress was made.

Bank of Ireland condemned the strike threat as "completely unwarranted and against the interests of the Bank’s staff and customers".