Ulster Bank making 750 redundant

MIN2511

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0126/banks.html


The Ulster Bank Group is looking to secure 750 voluntary redundancies.
550 jobs are to go at its operations in the Republic and a further 200 in Northern Ireland.
The redundancies are part of a move by Ulster Bank Group to merge its specialist mortgage and investment arm, First Active, with Ulster Bank.
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Following the merger, the First Active brand will disappear and all First Active customers will be automatically transferred to Ulster Bank.
Ulster Bank Group, a subsidiary of Royal Bank of Scotland, employs 7,000 people in both the Republic and in Northern Ireland.

First Active has 60 branches in Dublin and the larger towns and cities, employing more than 400 people.
There is also a nationwide network of Ulster Bank branches, which was a good idea in the boom when lenders aggressively sought to build their loan books, but it is of little value in a recession.
All 60 First Active branches will be closed.
In locations where there is both a First Active branch and an Ulster Bank branch, one of the branches will be closed and the other will be branded Ulster Bank. In 15 First Active branches (in locations where there is no Ulster Bank already nearby), the branch will be converted to an Ulster Bank.

The merger is expected to be completed toward the end of this year. Ulster Bank is then expected to have 1.8m customers and 295 branches.
The two main unions involved, SIPTU and the Irish Bank Officials' Association, have been hearing about the job losses this morning.
A voluntary severance package will be made available to staff throughout the Group.
Meetings will be held with employees and employee representatives in the coming days.
These will be the first substantial job losses in the retail banking sector arising from the global recession and the bursting of the property bubble.

Today's move comes as Ulster Bank's parent Royal Bank of Scotland struggles to survive the credit crunch, which has wiped out most of its market value.
The British government is set to assume majority ownership of the bank, which was once one of the biggest in the world.



Out of curiousity, can the goverment not bail them out? Like they did with Anglo?

ntlbell

the fun deh mentals are souand

My name is Mud

MIN2511 wrote: »

Ulster Bank's parent Royal Bank of Scotland...

...The British government is set to assume majority ownership of the bank, which was once one of the biggest in the world.



Out of curiousity, can the goverment not bail them out? Like they did with Anglo?

Ulster is not an Irish-owned bank, and not in need of a bailout. Its a cost cutting measure. Different to Anglo.

thebman

Surprisingly most of the banks that are in deeper sh*t have not announced anything and in some cases are still hiring.

Fizman

brim4brim wrote: »

Surprisingly most of the banks that are in deeper sh*t have not announced anything and in some cases are still hiring.

Not only that, but there are still internal promotions at the minute. I have a mate who works in Lending with Anglo, and got promoted to Assistant Manager during the second week of December, when apparently all else around was falling apart. Now I was happy for him and all that, but at the time when he told me I was like " Congrats. Actually.......Hold on a minute......".
The timing was crazy.

SheroN

brim4brim wrote: »

Surprisingly most of the banks that are in deeper sh*t have not announced anything and in some cases are still hiring.

deeper **** than RBS? please explain.

SheroN

SheroN wrote: »

deeper **** than RBS? please explain.

Indeed,
RBS needed a bail out from Bank of England well before the recent more serious problems erupted. Silly lending ftl.

billy the squid

SheroN wrote: »

deeper **** than RBS? please explain.

RBS have a better chance now that they are more-or-less a semi-state company now.

can we keep this about ulster bank a bit... any timeline given for closures?

5starpool

Deleted User wrote: »

can we keep this about ulster bank a bit... any timeline given for closures?

By the end of the year.

Very good voluntary redundancy package available though.

themadchef

From listening to the radio it seems like they are looking for voluntary redundancies only. Seemed to be pretty hopeful that they would get them too.

Anyone who didn't want to take redundancy form First active could be accommodated in the Ulster bank.

The question being asked that didn't really seemed to get answered was what would happen if they didn't get the voluntary redundancies sought. The package was not in question, it was more like "what was going to happen to the long term staff who decided to stay". How well would they be accommodated.

billy the squid

themadchef wrote: »

From listening to the radio it seems like they are looking for voluntary redundancies only. Seemed to be pretty hopeful that they would get them too.

Anyone who didn't want to take redundancy form First active could be accommodated in the Ulster bank.

The question being asked that didn't really seemed to get answered was what would happen if they didn't get the voluntary redundancies sought. The package was not in question, it was more like "what was going to happen to the long term staff who decided to stay". How well would they be accommodated.

In my experience a unionised company cannot get the number of lay offs required through voluntary redundancy, the go to compulsary redundancy on a last in first out basis.

Ya'd hope it would be a time to weed out the inefficent workers but I think it's normally lifo.

Limerick91

Is there any rule that states it must be LIFO.
Or can redundancy be used to get rid of slackers

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

No wonder I didn't get that job They were only hiring last year... madness I tell ya

3DataModem

VOLUNTARY redundancies.

LIFO doesn't apply.

we mean after the likely event of not enough volunteering..

delta_bravo

Ulster Bank is probably the most viable part of RBS now, even last year it showed good profits as Lloyds and Natwest were collapsing. Purchase of ABNAmro was a disaster

Nolanger

Hope Henri Hippo's job is safe.

Eoin

Fizman wrote: »

Not only that, but there are still internal promotions at the minute. I have a mate who works in Lending with Anglo, and got promoted to Assistant Manager during the second week of December, when apparently all else around was falling apart. Now I was happy for him and all that, but at the time when he told me I was like " Congrats. Actually.......Hold on a minute......".
The timing was crazy.

Was the job created for him, or was it an existing role that needed to be filled? Just because a company's in the crapper doesn't mean they don't need to fill certain roles.

billy the squid

Nolanger wrote: »

Hope Henri Hippo's job is safe.

The 1980s Henri Hippo was more interesting for kids anyway, the current incarnation is boring.

Also, Ulster bank has gone to the dogs service wise since RBS took over.

Daithi McGee

limerickros wrote: »

Is there any rule that states it must be LIFO. Or can redundancy be used to get rid of slackers

If they don't meet the voluntary quota then it is LIFO. It is position you are making redundant and not the person. If you know what I mean. You have 100 tellers and only need 80 now so last 20 in go regardless of what they are like.

billy the squid

limerickros wrote: »

Is there any rule that states it must be LIFO.
Or can redundancy be used to get rid of slackers

Making people redundant, but not making the position redundant is illegal afaik. can be classed as unfair dismissal.

1966

as they appear to be on a cost cutting exercise I'd imagine they are looking for the bigger salaried people to go --- last in in this case equals "cheaper" staff ??

galwayrush

My symphaty to anyone loosing their jobs, but Banks in general have caused a lot of people to be made redundant with their withdrawl of vital loans and overdrafts to keep businesses operating.

Acoshla

1966 wrote: »

as they appear to be on a cost cutting exercise I'd imagine they are looking for the bigger salaried people to go --- last in in this case equals "cheaper" staff ??

Hi,

Yep, that's true, I have a family member working there for over 20 years, they are on the older higher pay scale than the newer staff, and so they will be the first to go as most new employees doing the same job as them are on about half what they are on.

Capt'n Midnight

limerickros wrote: »

Is there any rule that states it must be LIFO.
Or can redundancy be used to get rid of slackers

no it doesn't have to be LIFO that's usually used to pacify the unions

some other companies are doing a points system
abesentism , length of service, written warnings and all that other stuff that isn't discriminatory

billy the squid

The unions are already creating a ****storm over the proposed layoffs. The voluntary redundancies will also comprise of not recruiting replacements for people who leave, early retirements i guess.

As for the country in general, Wyeth and Phieser are to merge, giving us a company with 5,000 irish employees, and where you get mergers, you get redundancies.

B.E.S.T.

750 is a lot but, how about 4`000 in one day in one building.That`s what happened in Bank of America in Manhatten last Wed. A friend of mine was one of them. Said it was mayhem. Security gaurds brought in as a precaution.