Bank of Ireland to cut 101 workers on temporary contracts

Bank of Ireland has said it will not be renewing the contracts of more than 100 temporary staff at two call centres on foot of the Covid-19 crisis.

The staff, who are employed via recruitment company CPL, work at the bank's two main Banking 365 call centres in Kilkenny and Tallaght, mainly in customer service roles.

The bank informed the 101 contractees, 78 in Kilkenny and 23 in Tallaght, on Thursday that their contracts, which expire on a rolling basis over the next six months, would not be renewed.

Many would have expected to have been made permanent after their contracts ended. However, the bank said the impact of the pandemic had changed its recruitment plans.

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“Prior to the onset of the current pandemic, attrition levels in our contact centres were at a level where we would often be able to offer permanent positions with Bank of Ireland to contract staff at the end of their contract period,” the bank said.

“However, since Covid, the number of vacancies arising within the business has significantly decreased. This development, coupled with expected efficiencies in our processes, unfortunately means that a number of contract positions will come to an end from late June 2020 to January 2021,” it said.

Bank of Ireland said it had communicated with all those impacted yesterday and that CPL had put in place a number of supports to assist them.

Other permanent staff employed at the contact centres will not be impacted by the development, the bank said.

However, the Financial Services Union, which represents bank workers, expressed concern for the workers impacted by the decision and called on both Bank of Ireland and CPL to engage with it.

“Bank of Ireland have confirmed that CPL workers affected can apply for alternative roles within the group which are advertised internally or externally,”

FSU senior official Maeve Brehony said.

“ However, we are calling on both Bank of Ireland and CPL to engage with FSU to exhaust all avenues to secure alternative roles for the workers impacted by this decision, to mitigate job losses,” she said.