Bank IT dispute resolved

The Bank of Ireland has resolved the ongoing dispute with IT staff over its $600m outsourcing deal with Hewlett Packard that threatened to develop into an all out strike.

UK and Irish tech staff voted last week on a series of concessions on pay, conditions and transfer rights proposed by an independent arbitrator, Kieran Mulvey, that were accepted by both the bank and HP.

Over 500 IT staff are affected by the deal, with around 145 of those employees from the bank's UK Bristol & West operations. The concessions agreed include one-off payments of E5,000, job security for five years along with pension rights, and union recognition.

The union had warned that the bank faced "total war" with staff if the proposals were rejected but the Bank of Ireland confirmed today that members of the Irish Bank Officials Association union voted in favour and that the deal with HP will now be tied up.

The ballot finished on Friday and members were also asked to vote on an all out strike in the event that the independent arbitrator's proposals were rejected.

A spokeswoman for Bank of Ireland said the company is pleased that the matter has finally been resolved.

"We now look forward to resuming full engagement with all in-scope employees and with HP and Esat/BT as we progress to fully implement the terms of Mr Mulvey's recommendations. The outsourcing programme now moves towards the latter stages of due diligence and contract signing," she said.

HP said it is glad Mulvey's recommendations have been accepted by staff and it is now looking forward to welcoming the transitioning staff in the coming months.