Bank staff are being subjected to an unprecedented level of abuse, including threats of violence from irate customers and members of the public.

Staff are regularly being targeted by people who have lost their jobs, whose homes are at risk or who can't access credit for their business, according to the Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA).

The association's general secretary Larry Broderick said: "Some of our members dread going out in public as, in small towns and the like, they get attacked by the locals who think they are all on huge bonuses and great salaries.

"Our colleagues are being told to 'shut up' when they inform customers they can't extend credit. People are shouting 'we own you now' and 'you're lucky to have a job'," added Mr Broderick.

The IBOA pointed out that the average bank worker earns about €37,000 a year, a fraction of the millions paid in salaries and bonuses to people on the boards of the country's banks.

It also said that bank employees who have worked in the sector for a long time have suffered huge losses as they were paid bank share options as part of recent productivity deals.

These share funds are now "practically worthless" but for many they were a vital nest egg.

overdrawn

Mr Broderick revealed: "Most of the hassle is in relation to loans and credit rating. People are getting it in the neck when customers get a basic letter saying they're overdrawn," he said.

Such is the level of abuse that the IBOA is considering asking bank management to draw up a charter outlining how bank staff should be treated with respect.

The IBOA said the abuse is unwarranted.

It claimed it warned senior management years ago that the growing obsession with maximising short-term profits could potentially undermine the whole sector.

Mr Broderick said that five years ago the IBOA warned that the introduction of new practices within the sector, driven by the banks' obsession with maximising short-term shareholder value at the expense of long-term stability and prudence, would inconvenience customers and pressurise staff and ultimately undermine the entire financial services sector.

"But in the height of the property boom, no one wanted to hear negative warnings from a bunch of party poopers," he said.

He said that staff are now experiencing "an unprecedented level of vitriol and abuse, including threats of violence, from customers and members of the public".

fdillon@herald.ie

- Fiona Dillon