AIB has announced that it is seeking 2,500 voluntary redundancies from its workforce as it aims to cut its staff cost base by about €170m in a full year.
It said it expects that around half of those departures will be finalised in 2012. AIB has about 12,500 staff in Ireland and another 2,300 across Northern Ireland and the UK.
The bank said that full details on the launch of the redundancy programme, its terms and how it will operate will be announced in early April after the bank consults staff and unions on the issue.
''In relation to redundancy, the terms being discussed are consistent with Government parameters,'' the bank said.
The bank said the jobs cuts form an ''important part of AIB's return to sustainable profitability''. It added that it will allow the bank to focus on its customers and support Ireland's economic recovery.
AIB said its objective is that the redundancies will be achieved on a voluntary basis. However, it added that it it does not achieve its cost cutting objectives with this programme, it will need to consider other options in due course.
"We will work hard to ensure that the reduction in staff numbers is achieved on a voluntary basis and there will be as much consultation and dialogue with staff and their representatives as is needed,'' commented AIB's chief executive David Duffy.
"We aim to implement a severance package that is fair to people at all levels in the bank, while reflecting the very difficult financial position that AIB is in and the huge taxpayer support on which we continue to rely. I am confident that AIB will achieve sustainable profitability with a reduced cost base essential to delivering this recovery,'' he added.
Today's announcement from AIB comes on top of Ulster Bank's demand in January for a further 950 job cuts. 6,000 jobs in the Irish banking sector have been cut since the autumn of 2008, the finance union IBOA said.
The IBOA says the job cuts proposed today by AIB will have a devastating impact on ordinary employees and their families.
"Although we have been expecting an announcement on the bank's restructuring plan for some time, the scale of the proposed job losses means that ordinary bank staff are being asked to suffer the consequences of the mismanagement of the bank's affairs to a disproportionate extent," said IBOA general secretary, Larry Broderick.
''This continuing haemorrhage of jobs in the financial sector shows no signs of abating. We need a realistic strategy to strengthen existing employment and create alternative opportunities," he added.
The UNITE union said its members at the EBS Building Society would "wait and see" what emerges from consultations between AIB, EBS's parent company, the Department of Finance and the Irish Bank Officials Association before deciding whether or not to take any action.
The union said EBS had already implemented an agreed cost saving programme under separate established severance terms.
