News of the finance and information workers union
Flash Archives
March-April 2006
Danger Zone campaign brings target pay to the fore
Finsec members’ campaign to end unnecessary stress in the BNZ has gathered steam in the last month. As part of the collective employment negotiations last year the bank reluctantly agreed to establish a working party on health and safety. This followed Finsec filing a statement by 900 members, claiming that they believed that unnecessary stress existed in their workplace and that they considered it a health and safety issue. More info...
Industry campaign delivers early victories in ANZ National
A year that has seen the majority of Finsec members actively involved in large campaigns around pay systems appears to have delivered early benefits to staff at ANZ National. ANZ National’s General Manager People Capital, Andrew McSweeney, recently responded to a letter from Finsec General Secretary Andrew Casidy confirming that the bank would not be looking at a target-based pay system as it looks at possible models to adopt as it merges its existing two pay systems. More info...
The NZ Income Survey for the June 2005 quarter, released by Statistics New Zealand in October that year, showed a widening gap in the income between men and women. The Council of Trade Unions was dismayed by the figures which showed that pay for full time men went up approximately 6.3% since the June 2004 quarter, compared with 3.2% for women. The rates for male part time workers increased by 8%, as compared to 2.8% for women. Overall, this means that the gender pay gap has increased – with women earning 82% on average of what men do, as compared to 86% in 2004. More info...
“Where we are in Australia, is staring down the precipice.”
Cath Noye is the National Assistant Secretary at the Australian Finance Sector Union (the FSU), a union comprising 65,000 Australians employed by many of the same banks and finance companies that also operate in New Zealand. She was in New Zealand last month for Finsec’s biennial conference to see how Finsec was approaching these same employers, and also to share a few stories about what is happening over in Australia at the moment. More info...
National conference calls for workers to get political
Finsec’s national conference spent much of its time discussing how to prevent Australian-style workplace reform legislation being introduced into New Zealand. John Howard’s government in Australia has recently introduced wide-reaching industrial law that removes all but five previously legislated minimum conditions that protected workers’ rights. More info...
Public calls for change at Westpac
A three-month dispute for Westpac ended on February 10 when 1600 Finsec members at Westpac voted to accept the bank’s offer of 5.2% pay increases for a 16-month term. The agreement also includes the ability for a number of long-serving staff to advance through the pay scale based on their experience and, importantly, agreement to develop a new pay progression system that will not be based solely on meeting targets. More info...
Members at Westpac’s Palmerston North Broadway branch covered their entire office with roses during last year’s National Customer Service Day. Branch delegate, Gill Evans, said she came up with the idea as a way to cheer people up. More info...
House to debate 90 day probation period for new workers
MP, Dr Wayne Mapp, has recently introduced a private member’s bill (pdf file 14kb) into Parliament that will establish a 90 day probation period during which employees can lose their job without having recourse to personal grievance procedures. More info...
Also:
and a letter to the editor
