AIB has taken an unprecedented move and emailed all its employees to encourage them to vote in Friday's referendums as part of what it called its "diversity agenda".

An email to senior managers, passed on to some 11,000 employees in the State, asked them to allow staff flexibility to enable them to cast their vote.

The email, sent by the bank’s HR manager, stated: “As you know, this Friday is voting day in the Republic of Ireland. As part of our diversity agenda, we would be eager to ensure that every employee who wants to exercise their right to vote has the chance to do so.

“Please can you ensure that anyone who might need some flexibility in terms of start or finish time on the day, so that they can vote at their local registered station, can be accommodated.”

A spokeswoman for the bank insisted the email was not intended to tell staff how to vote and was not a reflection of the company’s view on the referendums.

“AIB has more than 11,000 employees, many of whom have long commutes to work,” she said.

“In order to facilitate those wishing to vote tomorrow, AIB managers were asked to be flexible.”

The spokeswoman said: “AIB does not have any view on the substance of the referenda.”

Unusual intervention

One Dublin-based AIB manager, however, described it as a very unusual intervention. “I have never seen anything like this before an election or vote before. They are not telling us how to vote but the reference to diversity is probably fairly clear.”

The manager said: “Most of my colleagues are young and their reaction seemed to be that they would definitely vote Yes.

"But I am not sure how they will feel about this in branches in places like Donegal. They may think the bank has a cheek."

Asked about the reference to the diversity agenda, the spokeswoman stressed the bank was not telling people how to vote, merely accommodating those who wished to.

Pressed that this was the first time the bank had ever sent such a communication, the spokeswoman said “we’ve done a lot of things for the first time” and AIB would continue again with such communications in future elections and referendums.