Permanent TSB staff in line for pay rises and better benefits

All staff at Permanent TSB (PTSB) are in line for pay increases as well as an improved range of benefits following talks with the bank.

PTSB and unions have been engaged in talks in recent months and have now agreed a two-year pay and benefits deal. The bank said the deal includes a “progressive two-year pay for performance deal” of 6.5 per cent, with a 3.5 per cent increase in the first year followed by a 3 per cent increase in the second year.

It said the hikes would offer “pay certainty to all colleagues” for 2022 and 2023.

The minimum starting salary for all entry level or graduate staff will also be increased from €25,000 to €27,500. Any staff member who is paid less than €27,500 will have their salary adjusted to that new minimum level.

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The agreement also includes a planned change to the bank’s pension scheme, specifically focused on delivering “measured enhancements” for staff nearing retirement age.

Wellbeing day

All staff will also receive a once-off “wellbeing day”, to be taken at a time to be agreed with their manager during 2022. An existing marriage-leave arrangement will be replaced by a “broader, more inclusive life leave arrangement”.

Maternity leave benefit will increase from 18 weeks to 26 weeks, during which staff will be on full pay less social welfare.

Sick leave arrangements will also be enhanced to provide staff with “increased pay certainty” should they fall ill at an early point in their career with the bank. All staff, subject to a minimum level of service, will now be entitled to paid sick leave for short-term and longer-term absences due to ill-health, the bank said.

A spokeswoman for the bank said the pay increases had been agreed against a backdrop of economic uncertainty.

“Over recent months, we have been engaged in constructive conversations with employee representative bodies on a new colleague pay and benefits deal,” she said. “These conversations have taken place against the backdrop of significant market, societal and economic uncertainty.

“We sought to agree an affordable and progressive deal for colleagues that included meaningful base pay increases along with an enhanced suite of colleague benefits.”

A spokeswoman for Unite, which is by far the biggest union at the bank, said the deal had been “overwhelmingly accepted” in a ballot of its members.