“I had one Christmas off for the last six Christmases I’ve worked at the bank. So this year I wanted Christmas off and they won’t let it happen.”

Ferila Jay To-Niko has been working for BNZ Lending Services for six years and only been able to take her annual leave during Christmas once. She desperately wants to go to Samoa to get her son and spend some time with him over Christmas. So this year she applied in March, giving the bank nine months’ notice.

However the bank has turned her down even though she is the only person in her team who wants leave on those particular dates. The bank said that operationally they cannot allow her to have the leave because one of the days she has asked for, December 16, is the busiest day of the year. All Ferila’s team supported her application and have said that they will cope, but still the bank refuses.

“Every time I think about it I’m really annoyed and frustrated. That I cannot get what I wanted. I was aiming to get this first Christmas and go away. I actually want to go back and get my son and have a good time away for the very first time.”

Finsec has taken the matter up with the HR people at BNZ’s People and Culture team, pointing out that the Holidays Act states that; “an employer must not unreasonably withhold consent to an employee’s request to take annual holidays.”

When interviewed for this story the BNZ People and Culture consultant who is dealing with Ferila’s case was not authorised to comment to Flash.

For Ferila, that’s not good enough; “I’m really annoyed and angry. Maybe somebody else is in the same boat as me.”

There are plenty of other people in the same boat. Being unable to take holidays at suitable times, or being made to take holidays at times that suit the bank is a story that Finsec organisers heard many times at the recent round of BNZ and Westpac stopwork meetings. Both banks are allotting annual leave on their own terms with little space being given for the needs of workers and their families.

Finsec believes that the problem in both BNZ and Westpac is the result of understaffing. Understaffing in both banks is causing workplace stress, forcing people to work unpaid overtime, miss out on morning and afternoon tea breaks or take shortened lunch breaks.

Finsec’s General Secretary, Andrew Casidy, argues that banks need to be properly staffed so that workers have the opportunity to share their holidays with their families. “Workers’ families should not be punished by banks trying to save a buck and hire less staff.”

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