ULSTER BANK HAS confirmed that it is to cut 950 jobs from its Irish operations on both sides of the border.
The bank has confirmed that 600 jobs will go in the Republic and 350 will go in Northern Ireland as part of cost cutting operations. Fears that jobs would be lost emerged yesterday as management met with trade unions.
The bank cut 1,000 jobs in 2009 and the latest round of redundancies will bring its combined workforce in the North and South to just over 5,000.
The British-owned bank said that the continuing deterioration in the economy both here in Ireland and globally had led to the job losses.
It hopes the measures can “ensure the organisation is well placed to compete effectively in the market and continues to serve the needs of its 1.9 million customers across the island of Ireland.”
Terms for redundancy packages will be revealed after a period of consultation.
The Irish Bank Officials Association, the main union representing workers at the bank, said it was alarmed by the scale of the cuts, RTÉ reports.
The job losses are part of a wider cost cutting plan by Royal Bank of Scotland – Ulster bank’s parent company which is 84 per cent owned by the British government.
Earlier RBS announced 3,500 jobs would go in its investment banking arm as part of plans to split its big-business banking services into separate arms, and close or sell other areas of its business.
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