Bank of Ireland workers have called off next Tuesday’s planned 24-hour strike after a deal with the bank in a row over gain share payments.
The Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA) said a “compromise deal” had been brokered by independent mediator Kieran Mulvey. The strike threat emerged after the bank said it would cut its annual gain-share bonus to staff from 6 per cent of salary to 3 per cent of salary.
Some 6,000 workers had planned to hold the stoppage and picket the bank’s AGM in Dublin next Tuesday. Instead, members of the IBOA will be balloted on the new deal on the table.
Under the deal reached this morning, staff will receive an additional, once-off, non-pensionable lump sum payment equivalent to 3 per cent of annual salary in October.
IBOA General Secretary, Larry Broderick, said that the IBOA’s Bank of Ireland Executive Committee considers that the proposals represent a significant advance on the Bank’s previous declaration that its original decision was non-negotiable.
“The proposals brokered by Kieran Mulvey represent a positive and imaginative response to the impasse created by the bank’s unilateral decision on the staff stock issue,” he said.
“As well as compensating staff for the shortfall in the gainshare bonus, Mr Mulvey’s findings also reinstate the core principles of negotiating change by agreement – rather than imposing change by decree,” he added.
Members of the Unite union, which represents 600 workers, have also called off their planned action for the same day.
Colm Quinlan of that union said: "We are pleased to have secured a fair result for our members". Siptu workers, who were also part of the planned action also deferred the stoppage.
Bank of Ireland welcomed the decision to suspend the one-day strike. “We would like to acknowledge and thank Mr Kieran Mulvey and the various staff representative groups for their commitment to resolving this matter”, it said in a short statement.
