The Labour Relations Commission has this evening stepped in to help resolve a dispute involving 300 workers at Bank of Ireland IT company ITSIS.
Staff at the wholly-owned BOI subsidiary today rejected a plan drawn up by their union in relation to the outsourcing of the company's IT work to Hewlett Packard.
They had planned 24-hour strike action and an indefinite ban on overtime from midnight on Thursday 31st July. However, the IBOA has now agreed to take part in talks hosted by the LRC next Wednesday with a view to resolving the outstanding issues of job security for the ITSIS workers when the €600 million IT contract transfers to HP.
While the contract is to last seven years, ITSIS staff were only offered two-year contracts. They had also sought a voluntary redundancy package and a guarantee of a job with Bank of Ireland in the event that any of them are made redundant before the contract expires.
The staff were balloted on the document drawn up in talks between the Irish Bank Officials' Association (IBOA), Bank of Ireland and HP earlier this week. It is understood the vast majority of the 300 IBOA members voted against it.
The document on which staff voted today gave a guarantee that no compulsory redundancies would take place at ITSIS for a period of two years following the transfer to HP.
It also agreed to guarantee a further one year's salary in the event of compulsory redundancy taking place.
However, Bank of Ireland warned that there would be no 'passport' back to the bank for ITSIS workers.
IBOA general secretary Mr Larry Broderick said: "The onus is now on the Bank of Ireland to listen to their staff and seriously address their concerns particularly around the issue of job security.
"A bank that makes over $1.1bn in profits and is signing an outsourcing deal with a multi-national corporation worth over $600m should put aside excessive corporate greed and follow standard international practice in outsourcing deals, by offering loyal staff an opportunity of redeployment back in the bank."A spokesman for Bank of Ireland said the bank was disappointed the proposals on the HP contract had been rejected. He said the IBOA represented just one third of the 550 people involved in the transfer.
"We believe outsourcing is good for the bank, good for the people working for the bank and good for the country," he said.
He said the staff who would transfer to HP were being offered job security far greater than that available to any other member of staff in the bank. Bank of Ireland would participate in the talks at the LRC next week, the spokesman added.