Published: Wednesday, 10th March, 2010 6:00pm

No proposals to save any Postbank jobs yet

The Athlone staff of Postbank, which is to be wound down later this year, say they have not yet been told of any proposals to save aspects of the company including the One Direct insurance business.

The Communications Workers Union (CWU), which represents the approximately 150 staff employed by Postbank in Athlone, met with company management last week and said no guarantees were given that any of the local jobs would be retained.

"In total there are 260 people employed by Postbank in Ireland and unfortunately all 260 of those jobs are currently at risk," Ian McArdle of the CWU told the Westmeath Independent this week.

After it was established three years ago, Postbank absorbed the One Direct insurance business along with PostPoint, a channel for electronic transactions and payment services.

It's understood that Postbank staff have also not been given details of the redundancy packages which they may be offered.

The company's board of management is due to meet on March 26 and it's thought that more specific details regarding the future of local staff may be available after that meeting.

One Postbank staff member in Athlone said this week that he and his colleagues remained in the dark over their future.

"If An Post steps in and decides to take over the One Direct business we don't know, for example, which staff would be redeployed to work for One Direct," said the Postbank employee.

"Would it be based on the number of years with the company or would it be decided on the basis of a skills matrix? We don't know.

There are a number of staff members in particular who started out with One Direct and worked with the company for years but now don't know where they stand."

When asked if any components of Postbank would be saved, a spokesperson for the company said yesterday (Tuesday) that the company was "looking at different options" at present and that staff would be briefed "once we have some clarity" on those options.

Mr McArdle expressed deep frustration over the fact that the government had not intervened to save Postbank at a time when other banks were in receipt of multi-billion euro bailouts from the State.

He said staff in Athlone were "angry and concerned for their futures" when they met with the CWU at the Creggan Court Hotel last Wednesday.

"It has to be said that their anger was reserved mostly for the Finance Minister rather than Postbank management," he commented.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan reacted to the news of Postbank's imminent closure by saying he was "disappointed but not totally surprised," by it.

Mr McArdle said, "You have a situation where thousands of millions are being pumped into Anglo Irish and other banks but the Government is doing nothing to save Postbank, which some have said could be rescued for €100m - a relatively small sum in comparison.

"That €100m investment would save 260 jobs and secure the future of a strong, clean community bank.

"Mr Lenihan said earlier that no bank could be allowed to fail but now it appears that he's willing to allow Postbank become the first Irish bank in history to fail."

Discussing last Thursday's meeting with Postbank management, Mr McArdle said the union learned from management that there were no real proposals as yet to save jobs at the company.

"It was the first of what we expect will be many meetings with Postbank management," he said.

Postbank is a joint venture between An Post and French bank BNP Paribas. Over the last week national media reported that the decision to wind down the bank had been taken after BNP Paribas decided to pull out, however rumours have been circulating among Postbank staff in Athlone that An Post was the party which had decided to opt out of the venture.

A spokesperson for An Post denied this yesterday, saying the two parties had jointly decided to wind down the bank.

The future of the Postbank jobs in Athlone was raised in the Dail last Thursday by Deputy Denis Naughten who said staff were "in limbo as regards whether they will be retained within One Direct, Postbank or An Post," and that this was causing "significant confusion and concern."

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