UNIONS HAVE REACTED angrily to proposals to cut bankers pay by up to 10 per cent.

Their reaction follows yesterday’s publication of the ‘Mercer Review of Remuneration Practices and Frameworks at the Covered Institutions’ which called for the cuts, and which the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said were “inescapable”.

The Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA) said that they “rejected the Government’s call”.

The general secretary of the IBOA, Larry Broderick, said that bank employees had “taken considerable pain in recent years – in the form of significant reductions in remuneration as well as substantial jobs cuts.”

Had the Government accepted our offer to engage with the consultants in the development of the report, some of these omissions could have been avoided.

Following a meeting next week to consider the report in “more detail”, Broderick said that they intended to seek “comprehensive engagement” with government.

Separately, the Unite trade union condemned what they called the “lack of consultation prior to publication” of the report.

Regional officer Colm Quinlan said that government had not learned any lessons over the last number of years, deciding instead to rub salt in the wounds of bank workers who “are told they should feel grateful for being ‘saved’.”

The union, which represents approximately 10,000 workers in the financial services, has also called for a meeting next week at which it will decide what course of action to take.

Permanent TSB were less critical, saying that they would initiate a pay and benefits project in the coming weeks which would aim to achieve the cuts “in as fair and equitable a manner as possible while accepting the different positions in which different employees find themselves”.

AIB’s chairman, David Hodgkinson said that the bank’s board fully agreed that “further work is required to reduce overall staff costs to a level more reflective of the bank’s current and long term operating position”.

Read: Cut bankers pay by up to 10% says Michael Noonan >