Further job losses have been signalled at National Irish Bank (NIB) and Northern Bank as part of the ongoing restructuring of parent National Australia Bank (NAB).
In its annual report to shareholders issued yesterday, NAB stated that some 910 jobs would be cut from its European operations, which refers to its businesses in the Republic and Britain.
The Australian bank had signalled 250 job losses in April and a spokesman said a further 440 were indicated in September. This suggests that the additional number of redundancies to affect staff in Britain and the Republic is around 200.
Some sources have indicated that the bulk of those losses will be in Britain.
The bank is working to flatten its management structure and to reduce its back-office functions but no branch closures are expected.
The Irish Bank Officials' Association (IBOA) has called on NIB to explain the latest proposed job cuts, which come at a time when the group reported a 67 per cent rise in profits to 3.3 billion Australian dollars (€1.9 billion) in 2002. It hopes to save Aus$370 million a year by 2004.
"Earlier this year, the union reached agreement with the National Australia Group in relation to cuts. The agreement guaranteed no compulsory redundancies in Ireland and put in place a mechanism to re-deploy staff into other areas of the group," it said.
IBOA assistant general secretary Mr John O'Connell said the union required clarification on where the additional losses were to be made. "Any further reduction beyond the agreed figures will have to be negotiated," he said.
NAB employs 2,000 in the Republic and 14,000 in the UK.
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