Ireland's main financial services union plans to call on AIB to review its whistleblower charter following the dismissal of an AIB employee who worked in the capital markets
division.

The concerns were raised by a union member who has knowledge of a case that has been listed for a legal hearing at the Employment Appeals Tribunal later this week.

The Sunday Tribune understands that the case involves Brian Purcell, a young executive who worked until early 2008 in the bank's capital markets division. It is understood he used the bank's internal Speak Up policy, a charter that guarantees staff confidentiality, to voice his concern on a matter in the division. He was dismissed several months later for reasons and in circumstances that remain unclear but that will be heard by the appeal hearing he is bringing against AIB for his dismissal scheduled for this Friday.

The Speak Up policy was put in place over a decade ago so that AIB employees could air concerns without fear of retaliation. The bank significantly strengthened the policy in 2004 following the revelations that AIB was to repay €60m to customers overcharged through two types of fees over many years. Eugene Ludwig, the consultant AIB hired after US rogue trader John Rusnak lost the bank $691m in 2002, also subsequently talked about the need for the bank to purge a legacy culture and encourage openness among staff.

Larry Broderick, general secretary of the Irish Bank Officials' Association, said he planned to ask for a review of all cases in which banks face employment appeals hearings and to ask AIB to review its Speak Up policy because of the information he had received from a person with knowledge of the case.

An AIB spokeswoman said that the bank was not aware of the IBOA request. AIB could not comment on a pending legal case, she said.

Broderick, writing in the IBOA's quarterly Spectrum publication, which argued for strengthening protections for whistleblowers, said that "proper protection" for employees was "vital to changing the culture of banking both in Ireland and the rest of the world".

AIB's Speak Up policy says that staff who raise issues are not leaving themselves open to retaliatory action: "That assurance will also hold even if your
concern later transpires to be
unfounded."