Business at B of I 'not hit' by picket

Bank of Ireland has said there was no business impact yesterday arising from the pickets placed by workers from the Amicus trade union.

The union members placed pickets on the bank's headquarters on Baggot Street, Dublin, and on its New Ireland Assurance offices on Dawson Street, Dublin, in protest at the bank's pension proposals.

However it asked members of other unions to go to work as usual. A further protest picket is to take place next Wednesday on the bank's ICS building in the Irish Financial Services Centre.

A spokeswoman said the bank now hoped that Amicus would agree to meet with it for "further constructive talks" on the issue.

The Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA) expressed its full support for the action taken by Amicus.

General secretary Larry Broderick said: "In line with a request from Amicus, IBOA issued a directive to our members in Bank of Ireland to attend work as normal and carry out normal duties."

A decision of the Labour Court is being awaited following talks last week between the bank and the IBOA on the pensions issue.

The bank announced yesterday that Andy Chalmers, from Barclays Bank, is to join as interim head of group human resources. Mr Chalmers is to replace Michael Grealy who has moved to the bank's capital markets division. Mr Chalmers will assume full responsibility for the position on December 1st.