The IBOA executive committee met with actuarial and accounting advisors last Wednesday to discuss proposals put forward by AIB's board on 25 May to offer defined benefit pension coverage on up to 62,000 of salary for all staff, with a defined contribution system applying for all salary above that threshold. The AIB decision followed a recommendation by an independent tribunal set up by the Labour Relations Commission, under whose auspices the bank and the union have been negotiating.

The upcoming round of IBOA communications will open an "information process" that will last up to eight weeks, according to a spokesman for the union, who emphasised that members were not in a rush to come to any conclusions about the AIB plan.

"This is big for our people in AIB, " he said. "We're not going to rush our members into a decision . . . people have questions on every point. We've put three years into this review, so it's not just a case of saying, 'Yeah, it's great!' You're talking about people who deal with finance every day."

Executives in the IBOA expect the move from AIB . . . the country's secondlargest employer . . . to have an impact on a national level, not only in financial services, but in other large institutional employers and semi-states.

AIB's rival Bank of Ireland is currently in the midst of negotiations of its own with the IBOA over a new pensions scheme the bank tried to introduce last year and the union feels its success on one front will support its efforts on the other.

B of I chief executive Brian Goggin told the Sunday Tribune that the bank was keen to draw a line under the issue by resolving it as quickly as possible.