Notice of a 24-hour strike at the Bank of Ireland's IT services subsidiary, ITSIS, was served last night by the Irish Bank Officials' Association (IBOA), writes Chris Dooley,  Industry and Employment Correspondent

The decision to strike, taken on the eve of the bank's annual general meeting, is the latest development in a row over the planned outsourcing of the bank's IT operations to Hewlett-Packard.

The bank expressed "huge surprise" at the move, however, saying negotiations had taken place on Monday and further talks were planned for tomorrow.

The outsourcing deal with Hewlett-Packard will result in the redeployment of the 300 staff employed by ITSIS in Cabinteely, Co Dublin.

About 220 of them are members of the IBOA, which wants job security guaranteed for the staff for the seven years of the Hewlett-Packard contract.

The bank is prepared to guarantee the jobs for two years only.

Mr Larry Broderick, IBOA general secretary, said there was a fear that staff could be "discarded" by Hewlett-Packard after two years.

The union, he said, had had a mandate for industrial action for the past four weeks, following a ballot in which 93 per cent had backed limited industrial action and 84 cent had expressed support for an all-out strike.

"We have decided this evening to serve notice on the bank of a 24-hour strike in Bank of Ireland ITSIS, commencing on July 23rd at 8 a.m."

The dispute was purely with the bank's IT operation, he stressed, and would not affect its branches or head office.

The staff concerned provide a range of services for the bank, including maintenance of IT systems and ATM machines, so the strike could have a "significant impact", said Mr Broderick.

But he did not expect the system to "collapse", he said. The strike would be the start of a series of industrial actions, he added.

"The hope will be that this sharp, shock to the system will make the Bank of Ireland senior management realise the importance of staff and taking staff needs on board as part of the bigger picture."

A bank spokeswoman confirmed that strike notice had been received. "We're hugely surprised, particularly given that negotiations were ongoing."

Regarding the level of job security sought by the IBOA, she said nobody in the organisation had guarantees of that sort.