A pay increase of 2 per cent has been recommended for staff at AIB earning less than €100,000 in the Republic and below £80,000 in the North.
The proposals came from mediator Kevin Foley of the Labour Relations Commission after his consideration of cases made by the Irish Bank Official’s Association (IBOA), which represents AIB staff, and management at the bank.
The increase would be immediate and would be backdated to the start of this year, the IBOA said.
Its executive committee at AIB has decided to recommend the acceptance of the proposals to members.
Mr Foley also proposed that negotiations begin on a new performance-based pay structure for staff working at the bank, with talks to be concluded by the end of the year.
“In addition, he has recommended that the current agreement between the union and the bank on job security should be extended by a further twelve months until the end of February 2017 - ensuring no compulsory redundancies and underpinning the existing voluntary severance terms secured by IBOA in 2013,” the union said.
Larry Broderick, the IBOA secretary general, said the proposal acknowledged the important role AIB staff had played in the bank’s return to profitability.
“Although the immediate increase of 2 per cent increase is modest, it breaks the ice on the pay freeze in AIB and marks a further step in the normalisation of engagement between the union and management on staff’s pay and terms and conditions of employment as the bank’s recovery is consolidated,” he said.
AIB said on Friday announced first half pre-tax profits of some €1.2bn, up by 50 per cent on the same period in 2014. The bank, which is 99 per cent State owned, also said it would cut its variable mortgage interest rate for both new and existing customers by 0.25 per cent, as it
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan recently said a stock market flotation of shares in the nationalised bank is more likely to take place in mid-2016 than later this year.
The bank has said it intends to repay the €20.8 billion in bailout funds it has received from the State since 2009.
A ballot of IBOA members in AIB on the offer is to begin on August 17th and conclude by September 3rd.
