On November 17 members of IBOA the Finance Union approved an agreement on salary rises and a new Career and Reward Framework put forward by the Bank of Ireland. The bank, employing 6,000, is the first banking beneficiary of the,2008 bailout to award a salary rise to its staff. For the unions the framework should serve as a reference for other banks in the country and indeed across the Irish economy that is now showing improvement after years of austerity.
Bank of Ireland hit hard by the 2008 financial crisis. In February 2009 the State bailed out Bank of Ireland with a 3.5 billion euro funds injection of which 2 billion were in the form of preference shares. Since December 2013 the Irish economy has much improved. The country is no longer under the strictures of the EU bailout plan and the Bank of Ireland has started buying back the State held preference shares, a move which gives it more latitude in terms of its salary policy. On top of this in 2014 the bank started making a profit.
Do you have information to share with us?