The Irish Bank Officials' Association (IBOA) yesterday warned that it would review its membership of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) if its members don't secure a 10 per cent increase in any new national pay agreement.

At a special delegate conference in Limerick yesterday, IBOA members unanimously agreed on an emergency motion that the union would not to sign up to a new national wage agreement unless it contained a 10 per cent pay increase over two years, the inclusion of a local bargaining clause and the provision for enhanced gain-sharing arrangements in profitable businesses.

Addressing the conference, general secretary Larry Broderick told delegates: "Unless we achieve our objectives during the negotiations not only will IBOA vigorously campaign against any proposed agreement but we will also have to review our membership of Ictu and take a serious look at whether we can achieve more for our members in direct negotiations with the banks than under the Ictu umbrella."

He added: "It does not make any sense for our members to continually increase productivity and profitability for financial institutions while their wages are kept low by the restrictions of national wage agreements that ignore the interests and demands of employees in financial services."

Mr Broderick said that it was "obvious to increasing numbers of us that national agreements, as they are currently constituted, do not serve the interests of our members, but merely provide a cover for highly profitable private businesses to keep labour costs down while they reap the benefits of massive profits".

Mr Broderick said that greater priority must be given to the concerns of employees in the private sector in the upcoming pay talks.

The unanimous decision to adopt the emergency motion followed a series of delegates hitting out at the national wage agreement and employees' shares of bank profits.

The IBOA's demands followed an address by Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea. He said: "If pay increases under the next and future pay agreements are not kept at a moderate level, the inevitable results in time are going to be job losses in vulnerable parts of the private sector and public service pay costs squeezing the resources which would otherwise be available for tax reductions or service improvements."