IBRC severance talks stall as deal alters

Efforts to negotiate a redundancy deal for some 100 remaining employees of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) have been derailed in recent weeks, according to finance union the Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA). This has left staff "bitterly disappointed".

Last October, chief executive of the Labour Relations Commission Kieran Mulvey was called upon to broker some kind of compensation agreement between all of the parties involved, including the special liquidator, Nama and the Department of Finance. However, according to IBOA general secretary Larry Broderick Mr Mulvey "encountered a serious obstacle in the last couple of days despite previous assurances that there was sufficient goodwill on all sides to suggest that his mediation initiative could be successful".

Minimum entitlement
The negotiations focused on redundancy terms for employees. Before the special liquidation of IBRC in February 2013, employees were offered four weeks' pay per year of service, including statutory redundancy.

However, the workers are now being offered only the legal minimum entitlement of two weeks which is worth less than half of the agreed terms.

The finance union estimates that the average salary of the remaining workers is less than €30,000 a year.

“These workers have become the collateral damage in the State’s solution to the promissory notes issue,” said Mr Broderick, adding that “the cost of providing fair and reasonable compensation for the IBRC workers is relatively minor, especially taking account of the vital work they perform in managing the loan book”.

As a result of the stalemate, staff are now considering withdrawing co-operation from the preparations for the disposal of the IBRC loans.

Moreover, the finance union is advising all prospective buyers of IBRC loans that withdrawal of co-operation is now “under active consideration”.

ACC Bank redundancies
Meanwhile negotiations are also under

way with regards to the redundancy of 180 staff at the Rabobank-owned ACC Bank, which was announced last October.

Last month a Labour Court hearing was convened between ACC Bank and unions Siptu and Unite after both parties had failed to reach an agreement on redundancy entitlements.

The unions had argued that employees of ACC Bank were entitled to eight weeks’ pay per year of service, inclusive of statutory terms capped at the equivalent of three years’ pay.

The Labour Court, however, recommended that redundancy payments of five weeks’ pay per year, inclusive of statutory terms up to a cap of 130 weeks salary, should apply.

A spokeswoman for the bank said yesterday that the Labour Court recommendations were being considered by the bank and the trade unions.