Irish unions meeting management of RBS-owned bank to clarify scale of expected job losses
Unions representing staff who work for the Royal Bank of Scotland-owned Ulster Bank on both sides of the Irish border are meeting with management to discuss job losses, which are expected to be announced on Thursday.
The official line from the bank was that it did not comment on speculation. An Ulster Bank spokesperson said: "Announcements pertaining to jobs are made to staff directly."
Larry Broderick, general secretary of the Irish Bank Officials' Association, said: "We have been concerned about speculation about job losses. We want Ulster Bank to clarify the situation."
The bank employs about 5,000 workers across the north and south. In 2009 it made 1,000 staff redundant.
Like other Irish-based banks, Ulster Bank was hit by heavy losses in the commercial property sector, which crashed and almost collapsed the republic's entire banking system. However, unlike the Irish-owned banks – the Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank – Ulster Bank did not receive billions of euros under Ireland's international bailout.