Banking staff under pressure to adjust in changing business

In the 1980s a job in the bank was a much-coveted possession. It offered security and a relatively good salary, particularly in rural areas, at a time when the economy was in the depths of recession. The banks were spoiled for choice when it came to recruiting staff, receiving thousands of applications for hundreds of jobs. Twenty years on, working in a branch of any of the banks no longer offers the same degree of security. Staff agonise over whether their branch will be the next one to close and what will happen to their jobs.

Bank of Ireland has begun to close up to 65 of its 300 branches around the Republic. AIB, National Irish Bank (NIB), Irish Permanent and TSB are also tweaking their networks, with branch closures and relocations a priority. At Ulster Bank, job and pay cuts have been proposed.

All financial institutions are radically changing the way they do business. The focus is on delivering traditional banking services in a cheaper way, such as via the Internet, telephone or automated cash machines.

Bank officials, particularly those who joined the bank in the past 20 or 30 years, have had to adjust to very different roles.

The days when they cashed cheques, lodged deposits and updated the balance on your account are long gone. Before Christmas, for example, Bank of Ireland introduced a restricted policy on cashing cheques and will only oblige certain customers. In most banks, customers standing in the queue for a cashier are given leaflets and are canvassed to sign up for more convenient services, and the take-up is huge. Bank staff are under no illusions about the future shape of branch banking. Through more advanced technology, administrative tasks are being centralised, so fewer staff are needed in the branch, and staff are under increasing pressure to achieve sales targets.

"We have always been sales people. We were always pushing to open new accounts and encourage customers to take out loans, with the emphasis on providing high-quality service rather than sales targets. If we wanted to be pure sales people, most of us would have joined Irish Life 20 years ago," a Bank of Ireland employee explains. At Ulster Bank, staff and management have been locked in a bitter dispute over proposed job and pay cuts. The bank has always enjoyed a good reputation with customers because its staff were seen to provide a higher standard of service than its bigger rivals.

In the past year, however, much has changed. Morale among its 4,500 staff hit rock-bottom as the bank sought to cut their wages - in some cases by as much as 30 per cent - and restructure the organisation in a way that could mean some staff having to transfer to other locations and take on different roles.

The dispute between the Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA) and Ulster Bank took a new twist last week when an independent tribunal in Northern Ireland ruled against compulsory redundancies and pay cuts. A ruling from a tribunal in the Republic is expected by the end of the month, which staff hope will be equally conciliatory.

The Northern Ireland ruling has removed the threat of industrial action and a similar outcome is hoped for in the Republic.

"There has been a huge culture change at the bank, stemming from the most senior levels. This is now a bank that wants to take money off their staff and is increasingly moving people with experience out of the network and placing unreasonable pressures on younger staff," according to one employee.

Such is the distrust between staff and management that the contents of internal information documents to staff must be verified by the IBOA before they are taken seriously.

Ulster Bank has been quick to point out that, unlike Bank of Ireland, it is not closing branches, but staff suggest there are other ways to streamline operations. The main gripe from bank officials is the disregard for their experience by their employers. In many institutions, younger staff, who are earning relatively modest salaries, are given little training while expected to cope with a huge workload.

"More experienced staff often spend much of their time sorting out errors and smoothing discrepancies with customers. This can be crucial in terms of retaining customers, but there is very little recognition of this by management generally," one employee says.

AIB has been closing branches, but in a low-key way, and has given a commitment to the IBOA to open new ones to retain the same overall number of outlets. In the past three years it has opened 21 new branches and closed 38, with urban and rural offices being equally affected. Each year it also opens new automatic cash dispensing machines - the bulk of which are in shopping centres, garages and other retail outlets - often to compensate for branch closures.

Staff at NIB are well used to uncertainty. The bank has been restructured, sold on to National Australia Bank, and has been bruised by controversies such as interest loading on customer accounts in certain branches.

"We have always been open and accepting of the need for change. We have no problem once the changes are fully explained, but that doesn't always happen," one employee says.

Many staff have left NIB in recent years, taking up a severance package offer. Those who stayed claim credit for the bank retaining most of its business, despite its problems. "There are now very few people over 50 in NIB. Branches have been closed and jobs are being de-skilled so many younger staff don't see any future for themselves in the organisation and tend to move on," according to one staff member.

Branch closures probably cause most hardship for employees in rural areas. Where branches are closed in the Dublin area it won't necessarily mean a huge life change for staff if they have to transfer to another branch nearby. In most branches the majority of staff are women, and having to drive 20 miles instead of five to a new branch every day can put additional pressure on childcare arrangements, making their jobs more difficult to sustain.

In Bank of Ireland, for instance, staff say closures have been a mixed bag so far, with most staff being accommodated satisfactorily. In some cases, this has meant staff over 40 taking the relatively generous severance package on offer. For others it has involved moving to another branch.

Difficulties remain to be resolved in Ulster Bank, while staff at Irish Permanent and TSB banks will be preparing for similar changes following their merger. AIB is the only bank to have signed a partnership agreement with the IBOA that commits it to a detailed consultation process with staff where restructuring or other changes are being proposed.

According to bank staff, the almost year-old agreement has managed to smooth out potentially contentious issues, such as staff transfers and the retention of senior positions.

The experience for staff in this uncertain environment can be greatly eased if handled sensitively by the individuals overseeing the project, but there is little doubt that job security is no longer guaranteed.