I am one of the 1800 staff affected and as already outlined on AAM I did take my case to the Ombudsman and he found in my favour, however FSO then rejected their own findings and reviewed my case again. I waited another 18 months and surprise surprise Bill Prasifka found in favour of BOI.
He concluded his findings by stating the following-
"I am cognisant of the fact that the wording in the documentation, in particular the MFA's signed by the Complainants, are not very clear. It would have been most prudent of the Bank to have specifically defined a tracker rate in the original loan agreement, which could have specifically prevented the confusion which led to this dispute. It is also a failure of the Bank in neglecting to clarify exactly the rate that would apply on expiry of the Complaints fixed rate, which they took out in December 2006.. I also must bear in mind the fact that the Bank communicated with the Complainants on two occasions in 2008, that they would be availing of the tracker rates on expiry, albeit the Bank clarified this not to be the case shortly afterwards.
I direct the Bank to pay 1,000 in compensation to the Complainants."
He has acknowledged the failures of the Bank in their dealings with me but yet he finds in their favour!
How can anyone have confidence in FSO when they overturn their own findings?
We had a date set for the High Court hearing, I had spoken to the person who had found in my favour and he was very confident we would win our case and then , out of the blue, I receive a call to say they were not proceeding to the High Court, had cancelled their findings and would review my case again with a different team.
I wonder was it because by winning my case, BOI would be forced to return trackers to 1800 staff and no way would the bank allow that to happen.
Despite their ongoing tracker investigation I doubt very much that the bank will return the trackers to the 1800 staff as they have Bill Prasifka s finding in their favour. They will conveniently forget the original finding in my favour.
This is complete madness how can anyone have any trust in any of these organisations, FSO, banks, etc, it seems if your not willing to roll the dice with the high court then they'll just find against you, even if they do find in your favour to begin with.
It seems to me that the FSO process is pointless, and that you need to be willing to goto the high court to seek justice, not easy do with costs involved.
Could the 1800 staff get together and try the high court.