Staff were expecting 2,000 job cuts, not 2,500, write TIM O'BRIENand FRANCESS McDONNELL,in Belfast
THERE WERE few if any smiles from AIB staff as they emerged from the Bank’s Ballsbridge headquarters at lunchtime yesterday.
Staff walked briskly past waiting media, heads and eyes averted, responding only with “no comment” when a microphone blocked their way.
Down the road near the Serpentine Express grocery store and Patrick’s Restaurant where staff gathered, things were slightly more relaxed, but there were to be no names or pictures.
“You all know what is happening,” said one young man. “It is no surprise. Most of us heard about it in the media anyway. We were expecting about 2,000 job cuts but now it is going to be 2,500, you know that,” he said dejectedly.
Another young man who said he had been employed only a short while in the bank said the email staff had received had been “a bit grey” on the details of severance opportunities.
“It was to be within the Government’s stated terms. Maybe that might suit some of the people who have been here longer,” he shrugged. A graduate with a business and finance degree, he said he did not want to leave and was unsure from the email whether redundancies would be voluntary. “I suppose if they don’t get enough volunteers they might look at it,” he said.
“Bank staff have a more developed sense of corporate loyalty; it was a lifestyle thing to say you worked for the bank, like saying you were doing well. Nobody wants to talk to you about that now, it has taken the pride away,” he said. Asked whether he would be taking redundancy himself, the man replied: “Can’t afford to.”
As 2pm neared and workers drifted back to the large glass headquarters, few wanted to chat. “Saying something would be meaningless. We don’t know anything, and we were asked not to,” said one man. Asked whether the request not to speak to the media was contained in the email from management, or in briefings from line managers, the man replied: “No, no, but we don’t know anything.”
AIB said it would announce terms of its proposed redundancy programme in early April on conclusion of a consultation process with unions.
The State-controlled lender said it hoped the redundancies could be achieved on a voluntary basis, with half the departures to be finalised this year.
In the North, the mood was similar. “We’ve been expecting this” was the general reaction of a group of First Trust employees to AIB’s proposed job cuts as they locked up their branch in one rural town in mid-Ulster yesterday afternoon.
AIB has in the past said it will try to avoid branch closures, but this has not stopped staff at the 48 First Trust branches speculating about the future.
AIB previously tried to sell First Trust, which employs 1,300 people, but it failed to attract market interest. First Trust has historically retained about a 20 per cent share of the local market.
IBOA, the finance union, warned any job cuts North of the Border would have a “a devastating impact”.
“IBOA has argued that First Trust bank has a very important role in the economy of Northern Ireland and that everything must be done to maintain the integrity of the branch network”, it said.
