The country's largest trade union, Siptu, has moved about €8 million from the Bank of Ireland following the row over comments made by its chief economist, Dan McLoughlin, during the Irish Ferries dispute in 2005.
The annual report of Siptu for 2006, which has been released, says that the union decided to move its €8 million contingency fund from Bank of Ireland after it declined to state whether it supported job displacement.
The bank was asked for its view in the light of comments made by Mr McLoughlin in the media at the height of the Irish Ferries dispute in late 2005.
Speaking about the moves by Irish Ferries to offer redundancy to its existing staff on the Irish Sea routes and replace them with lower-paid workers from abroad, Mr McLoughlin said at that time that the economy had been built up by jobs outsourced to Ireland by multinational companies.
He also said Irish Ferries had concluded that it could no longer compete on the Irish Sea routes with its existing wage structures. He later issued a statement saying that he had been speaking in a personal capacity and not on behalf of the bank.
The Siptu annual report also indicates that the union's decision to publish details of its transfer of the contingency fund was linked to the separate row over moves by Bank of Ireland last year to introduce what was considered to be a less favourable pension scheme for new staff. The bank announced that it was closing its defined benefit pension scheme for new staff.
Defined benefit schemes set out guaranteed payouts on retirement.
Bank of Ireland sought to put in place a new "hybrid" pension scheme which unions argued would offer less certainty in relation to staff retirement benefits.
"The union made its decision (to transfer the €8 million contingency fund from Bank of Ireland) after the national executive council called on the Bank of Ireland to heed the request from the Labour Court to maintain the status quo in relation to a dispute over the bank's defined benefit pension scheme for employees," Siptu's annual report states.
The report does not indicate to which bank the €8 million contingency fund was transferred.
The report states that the union's consolidated revenue account for 2006 showed a surplus of €2.967 million.
