ALLIED IRISH BANKS could be set to announce over 2,000 – and perhaps as many as 2,500 – layoffs tomorrow, it is reported this morning.
The Irish Daily Mail claims that sources within the bank have indicated that the institution will be forced to pursue a massive redundancy programme in order to retain its prospects as a going concern.
The cuts could potentially be outlined as early as tomorrow morning, when the bank is set to release its annual report – an announcement which had been delayed from last month.
The job cuts would have a major impact on the scale of the bank’s operations, with AIB employing 15,000 people in total across its operations in Ireland and Britain.
This morning’s report followed suggestions in yesterday’s papers that the banking sector could shed 6,000 jobs in the next three years given the closure of Anglo and Irish Nationwide, the merger of EBS into Allied Irish Banks, and the selling off of Permanent TSB.
Reports in both the Sunday Business Post and the Sunday Times (subscription required) suggested that AIB would be reducing its staff numbers by around 2,000.
The latter report quoted an email sent to staff by AIB chief executive Colm Hodgkinson, which said a plan for the bank’s future would mean “transforming our behaviour and embedding new values”.
The Irish Bank Officials Association is today holding an emergency meeting of its AIB executive committee. An AIB spokesman this morning told TheJournal.ie that the bank had no comment to make on the reports.
Read more on the plans in today’s Irish Daily Mail >
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