Permanent TSB has moved to open a voluntary redundancy programme to staff, prompting speculation that it could see hundreds of staff depart the smallest of the three remaining Irish retail banks as it seeks to cut costs.
It follows on from Permanent TSB (PTSB), which is led by chief executive Eamonn Crowley, launching a redundancy package two months ago for senior managers, aimed at cutting about 20 roles to improve what it called “organisational effectiveness”.
A spokeswoman for PTSB, which has added more than 700 jobs over the past five years to bring the total full-time equivalents to about 3,100, declined to say how many jobs the bank aims to cut under the wider programme, which will be open to applications until the middle of January.
“PTSB is broadening out the scope of a recently announced voluntary redundancy scheme in light of expressions of interest from employees,” the spokeswoman said.
“Following a period of transformational growth, the bank is now undertaking a number of important strategic business transformation change initiatives to enable its strategy and improve organisational effectiveness and efficiency. These initiatives will ensure that the bank’s business model is both robust and sustainable into the future.”
John O’Connell, general secretary of the Financial Services Union (FSU), criticised the move as an “insensitive and a devastating blow for consumers and staff” just weeks before Christmas.
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“There has been no discussion with the FSU around this announcement and no signal to the staff that a redundancy program was imminent,” he said.
“To announce this a few short weeks before Christmas is upsetting for staff and shows poor judgment from the bank.”
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