Members of the Irish Bank Officials Association are expected to vote not to co-operate further with the implementation of a cost-cutting programme at Bank of Ireland pending the enforcement of agreements with the bank.

Some 2,100 Bank of Ireland staff are to leave the company under a transformation programme that aims to achieve €120 million in cost savings a year by 2009. The bank expects to achieve savings of €30 million in the current financial year.

Some 400 jobs have been cut in Ireland already and by the end of March this is expected to increase to 1,200. The bulk of the positions being made redundant will come from streamlining support and processing functions.

The IBOA held a ballot of its members yesterday after what it described as attempts by "Bank of Ireland local management" to undermine the agreement reached between the union and the bank in relation to the cost-cutting programme brokered by Kieran Mulvey of the Labour Relations Commission.

In a circular last month, the IBOA called on members to support a directive not to co-operate with any further implementation of any aspect of the cost-cutting programme until such time as all aspects of the Mulvey agreement are implemented.

"It is with regret that IBOA is forced to take this action, but unfortunately we have no other options as, to date, the bank has not agreed to our request to defer the closing date for applications for early retirement/voluntary severance and furthermore has refused to give staff the opportunity of availing of all options available under Mulvey," IBOA general secretary Larry Broderick wrote.

A spokesman for the union said Mr Broderick would meet senior management at Bank of Ireland today to resolve the matter.