Siptu will ask about a quarter of a million of its members and their families to close their accounts with Bank of Ireland if the bank presses ahead with its plan to close its defined benefit pension scheme, writes Laura Slattery

Union officials met yesterday to give Siptu general secretary Joe O'Flynn a mandate to withdraw Siptu business from the bank and request a boycott by members if the bank does not abide by Labour Court procedures in relation to the scheme.

Siptu has followed through on a threat to withdraw business from the bank once before. The union withdrew a contingency fund of €8 million from Bank of Ireland earlier this year as a result of the bank's links with Irish Ferries, with which it was involved in an industrial dispute.

This money was moved to Irish Life & Permanent, which also manages its pension scheme.

However, individual branches of the union still have some business with the bank. Siptu is restructuring its finances so that its 134 branches are amalgamated into five regions, which it said would make it easier to change its banking relationships.

Bank of Ireland said the union was engaging in industrial intimidation, which it said was completely unacceptable.

However, Siptu, which has been angered by what it says is the bank's confrontational stance, said the proposed boycott of the bank was not a form of industrial action.

On Wednesday, Irish Congress of Trade Unions general secretary David Begg accused Bank of Ireland of breaking the terms of the national pay deal.

Mr Begg said the bank's refusal to comply with a Labour Court request to defer the introduction of a new pension scheme for employees who join the company after October 1st was "in clear breach of Towards 2016".

Employers' group Ibec defended the bank yesterday and said it was acting in a "reasonable and socially responsible" manner.