Bank of Ireland's IT staff will begin a 24-hour strike at midnight tonight following the collapse of talks between the Irish Bank Officials' Association (IBOA) and the bank.
Some 200 of the 300 staff at ITSIS, which provides support for ATMs and Internet banking, will picket their headquarters at Cabinteely, Co Dublin, in protest at the terms under which Bank of Ireland wants to outsource work to Hewlett-Packard.
It has agreed a seven-year €600 million contract with the multinational IT services group.
Last night, the bank said it would take all necessary steps to minimise the impact on the normal services it offers to customers in the run-up to the bank holiday weekend.
The IBOA has also decided to ban its members from working overtime from midnight until the dispute is resolved, which could affect the bank's ability to respond to any processing back-logs, emergency situations and break-downs in technology.
The IBOA is seeking a guarantee that the ITSIS staff, who would transfer to Hewlett-Packard, will have secure employment for the seven-year duration of the contract.
The bank has offered job security for two years and has offered to pay one year's salary if any redundancies arise at that point but has refused to move beyond that. It has refused to offer staff a passport back to the bank if Hewlett-Packard were to seek redundancies from their ranks.