Bank of Ireland employees have rejected proposals by the bank to change the existing pension scheme for all new staff.
Members of IBOA voted to reject the scheme, claiming it was convoluted and would leave thousands of new employees in relative poverty upon retirement.
The Bank of Ireland had proposed to change their existing Defined Benefit Pensions for new staff fromOctober 1st.
IBOA general secretary Larry Broderick
But according to IBOA General Secretary Larry Broderick, the move clearly infuriated staff who voted in record numbers to reject the bank's proposals.
"Staff cannot comprehend how a bank that reports profits in excess of €1.5 billion and has no problem paying extremely generous pensions to current and former senior executives would even consider such a draconian cost-cutting move," he said.
"The bank's proposals fly in the face of national policy and good corporate responsibility. In effect the bank is passing responsibility for the provision of decent staff pensions from one of the most profitable companies in Europe to the Irish taxpayer."
Mr Broderick said the creation of a two-tier pension scheme for staff doing the same job will clearly not work and blatantly discriminates against vulnerable young employees who are finding it difficult to manage and plan for their future with increasing inflation and interest rates.
The Bank of Ireland rejected the IBOA's criticism of the bank's decision to introduce changed pension arrangements for new employees from October of this year. A spokeswoman for the company described the union's statement as misleading.
"The bank pointed out that far from leaving future pensioner's dependent on state pensions as suggested by the IBOA, the new scheme is innovative, responsible and will provide long-term security for both employees and the pension scheme," she said.
IBOA is calling on the Bank of Ireland to defer the implementation of their proposal, if not the union will refer the matter to the Labour Relations Commission for conciliation.