AIB employees have voted to accept a 2 per cent proposal to increase basic pay by 2 per cent, backdated to January 1st 2015.

The pay rise will apply to employees earning up to € 100,000 or £80,000 a year, and is understood to be the first increase in basic pay since 2009 for the vast majority of AIB staff.

The move follows talks at the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) after negotiations between IBOA The Finance Union and AIB 's senior management. Further talks on new salary ranges to be introduced in 2016 are expected to be concluded by the end of the year.

Union general secretary Larry Broderick said that since the bank’s pay freeze in 2009, remuneration arrangements have failed to keep pace with the significant change arising from restructuring and technological advances.

“The new round of talks which are due for completion by the end of this year will provide an important opportunity to rectify the internal anomalies and boost the morale of staff in AIB,” he said.

Kevin Foley of the LRC also proposed that an existing agreement between IBOA and AIB which protects union members against compulsory redundancies should be extended by a further year until the end of February 2016.