BUSTAMANTE Industrial Trade Union (BITU) delegates are to meet today to discuss plans by the Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) to transfer some of its local banking services to the Dominican Republic.

This follows last week’s meeting between the bank and the union, at which details of the transferrals were disclosed with the union.

The BITU is claiming that at least 100 local BNS staff could be affected by the transfers, which involve the bank’s local lending, processing and business services units.

BITU President Senator Kavan Gayle claims that the union was informed of the transfers after the decision was made by management, instead of being included in the processes which led to the decisions.

“We are disappointed that they left us no room for negotiating an agreement on such an important issue which will affect so many of the workers,” Gayle said.

He stated that the union was concerned that some of the services to be transferred were not in the best interest of the either the workers or the bank’s customers, as it would mean that Jamaican customers would have to deal with staff who are not familiar with the Jamaican culture nor has English as their first language.

“And it is not in keeping with the bank’s policy to promote best practices and increase efficiency in its processing and support services, while reducing costs. Nor is it in keeping with the Government’s policy of increased employment opportunities offered by multinationals which are making huge profits,” Gayle added, noting that the bank had made a profit of $11.2 billion in 2017.

Following Tuesday’s meeting with the BNS management, Senator Gayle had announced that he would be meeting with the delegates today to formulate a response on behalf of the unionised staff and report back to the bank’s management on their decision.