THE IRISH Bank Officials Association (IBOA) has sought membership recognition for 250 staff at Irish Nationwide, which represents about two-thirds of the lender’s workforce, from the board of the building society.
IBOA general secretary Larry Broderick said most of the staff within the building society’s 50- branch network had approached the union seeking membership.
The IBOA has written to the building society’s chief executive Gerry McGinn, who has acknowledged the request for recognition of the union by the Irish Nationwide board.
Mr Broderick said a number of employees at Anglo Irish Bank had also approached the union for advice in advance of a voluntary redundancy programme being announced shortly. The bank is expected to seek several hundred redundancies.
Staff within Anglo had set up an employee group, Mr Broderick added, but the union had not yet made any representations to the management or board of the bank on behalf of any employees.
“Other than people coming to us individually, we have made no formal approach to Anglo, but there is a lot of worry there,” he said.
Irish Nationwide’s former chief executive Michael Fingleton resisted trade union representation within the organisation during his 38 years of managing the building society.
The IBOA plans to meet its members within the building society over the coming weeks.
Mr Broderick said staff were concerned about the Government’s plans for Irish Nationwide after the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) takes over most of its loan book.
“The priority and the real concern is what is the future of the organisation,” said Mr Broderick. “The other would be the changes staff face on their terms and conditions of employment and the speculation concerning consolidation within the banking sector.”
Nama plans to buy loans with a face value of €8.3 billion from the building society, which represents almost 80 per cent of the institution’s €10.5 billion loan book, leaving the building society with just over €2 billion in residential loans. Irish Nationwide is expected to need State investment of at least €1 billion.
Mr Broderick said he believed that a large number of staff would still be needed within Irish Nationwide to help Nama administer the loans being transferred to the State agency.
Nama is expected to be a catalyst leading to mergers in the banking sector and the possible creation of an enlarged banking group comprising Permanent TSB, the banking division of Irish Life Permanent, and the two building societies, Irish Nationwide and EBS.
Irish Nationwide said at its annual meeting last May that it planned to expand its home mortgage business and reduce its focus on commercial lending.
The building society had 374 employees at the end of 2008, down from 391 a year earlier, according to the institution’s most recent annual report. Some 31 of the 374 staff were listed as part-time workers.
Mr Broderick said many Nationwide staff were on temporary contracts.
