BAILED-OUT Irish bank AIB said yesterday that it was outsourcing 170 jobs after a review of its information technology (IT) operations, but denied there would be redundancies.

However, the outsourcing mechanism entailed hiving off the jobs to three existing companies and transferring current employees to them.

Fears of job losses had been triggered when the bank called 250 IT staff to a meeting earlier in the day to announce the results of the review it launched in October.

“AIB today confirmed that it is entering a process of consultation with employee representatives to discuss the bank’s plans to outsource a number of its IT services to Eircom, Integrity and Wipro,” the bank said.

The terms and conditions of staff transferring to the outside companies would be protected in line with European Union law, a spokeswoman claimed.

Speaking after the talks, finance union IBOA general secretary Larry Broderick said that his organisation would now begin discussion with AIB over the terms and conditions for transferring workers.

“It may very well be that the task for some of these members may be difficult and voluntary redundancy may have to be considered,” warned Mr Broderick.

He had said earlier that he feared jobs might be cut, while Irish media said that as many as 450 jobs were at risk. 

Any cuts would be a particular concern, Mr Broderick said, “at a time when AIB has come back into profitability and employees have made significant sacrifices to turn the bank around.”

Ireland’s Department of Finance, which oversaw a €21 billion (£16.3 billion) bailout of AIB at the height of the financial crisis, announced on Monday that it had appointed Goldman Sachs to advise on the sale of the bank.

It is thought that the outsourcing is a preparatory measure to the sell-off.

The bank has already cut staff numbers substantially. 

It employed the equivalent of 11,385 full-time workers in June 2014, down 1,333 on the figure a year earlier. 

In 2008, before the crisis hit, it employed about 26,000 staff.