{"id":130420,"date":"2025-10-18T15:51:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T15:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/130420\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T15:51:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T15:51:12","slug":"you-can-bank-on-hybrid-working-continuing-to-be-contentious-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/130420\/","title":{"rendered":"You can \u2018bank\u2019 on hybrid working continuing to be contentious \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Businesses across Ireland are struggling to marry the wishes of senior leadership to have staff in-office with employees\u2019 hopes of hanging on to the privileges of remote working. But no sector has been as successful in continuously making headlines as it struggles to overcome these HR hurdles as Ireland\u2019s banks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">On Friday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/bank-of-ireland\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/bank-of-ireland\/\">Bank of Ireland<\/a> revealed plans to open four additional <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/hybrid-working\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/hybrid-working\">hybrid working<\/a> hubs \u2013 in Letterkenny, Tralee, Tullamore and Wexford. A further hub is due to open next month in Sligo, bringing the total number to 20 across the State. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The sites are expected to come on stream early next year with the bank saying that most employees are now able to work \u201cfrom a combination of home, 12 office locations, and our hybrid working hubs\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">The move comes amid an ongoing industrial relations battle between Bank of Ireland and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/financial-services-union\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/financial-services-union\/\">Financial Services Union<\/a> (FSU).<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">Over the summer, both of the State\u2019s two biggest banks, Bank of Ireland and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/aib\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/aib\/\">AIB<\/a>, announced they would be increasing the number of days that hybrid workers would be required to attend their office. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Bank of Ireland wanted hybrid workers on-site at least eight times a month. Following negotiations, the FSU issued a directive to their members in the bank to continue with current working practices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The union then referred the bank to the Workplace Relations Commission in August, saying at the time that it had been left with \u201cno option\u201d following \u201cintransigence\u201d by the bank. Talks at the WRC are understood to be ongoing. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Staff in the bank consider the announcement of new hubs to be a victory won by their ongoing pressure on management and amid complaints of a lack of capacity at the hubs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">Bank of Ireland is framing it as a continuation of its plans to \u201cinvest in flexible working because it works \u2013 for our colleagues, for our business, and for the communities we serve\u201d, according to its chief people officer, Matt Elliott.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The secret as to the why may be hidden deeper into their announcement: to \u201cattract and retain talent\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">With two of the State\u2019s biggest employers struggling to keep staff happy on this issue, the one thing you can bank on is that the issue of hybrid working arrangements will continue to be contentious \u2013 pun intended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Businesses across Ireland are struggling to marry the wishes of senior leadership to have staff in-office with employees\u2019&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[624,625,79,2355,18,78389,2357,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-130420","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-aib","9":"tag-bank-of-ireland","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-cantillon","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-financial-services-union","14":"tag-hybrid-working","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}