News of the finance and information workers union
Flash Archives
August 2005
BNZ and Westpac challenged to provide decent work
“It’s time to start pushing membership and promoting ‘union’, because if we have more members we have stronger claims.” - Dan Crawford, Westpac Phone Assist
Finsec members at BNZ and Westpac have just completed two weeks of stopwork meetings where they debated their vision for upcoming employment negotiations. An overwhelming theme to emerge from the meetings was that members wanted to be able to give good customer service, but felt they couldn’t because of the incessant demands of understaffing, sales targets and excessive workload…
All I want for Christmas...
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...
Stopwork meetings highlight industry wide problems
For the first time since 1990 Westpac and BNZ members held joint meetings to discuss their separate, respective, upcoming negotiations. The meetings showed that almost all the issues that members raised were shared by people across both banks. Prominent among these issues were concerns about understaffing, workload and unmanageable performance targets…
Editorial - It's more than loose change
The election is coming. Again. And at times it can all seem a bit, well, repetitive. There will be lots of politicians promising lots of things. No real change.
Well, this election probably is different.
The present government, and the parties that support it, have made some big changes in the last five years. Changes that have affected most ordinary working people’s lives in one way or another. Schools have changed, healthcare has changed, employment law has changed, the economy has changed, the justice system has changed, and public provision for retirement has changed. And the list goes on…
Election Issue 1 - Education – Siua Treviranus, BNZ, Petone
“There was pressure to get a student loan because both parents were working. We fought hard and did it all ourselves but it is all very demanding and expensive to support children at university if you have a big mortgage as well.”
Siua’s 22 year old son has just finished a four year double degree at university. Siua and her husband worked hard to and borrowed to get him through university, but were lucky that he also won a three-year scholarship. Because both Siua and her husband work their son would not have been eligible for a student allowance and could have finished with a big student debt…
Election Issue 2 - Employment and the Economy – Matt Oliver, National Bank, Auckland
“We’ve seen some strong economic growth and some good conditions for business growth in the last six years.”
Matt is a ‘die hard’ union member who believes that a strong economy and good working conditions have helped keep him debt free through years of study. Matt says that stable employment relations help strengthen the economy. He cites the situation in Australia where, up until now, they have had balanced industrial legislation, saying that is “certainly a key part of the explanation for the wages gap across the Tasman”…
Election Issue 3 -Health - Peter Apperley, BNZ, Auckland
“I’m concerned that the health system is only now getting back to a reasonable level after being chronically under funded.”
As for many New Zealanders, healthcare will be a key issue for Peter Apperley when he turns up to vote. Peter’s mother has now had two hip replacements; the first several years ago at a private hospital, and the second two years ago in a public hospital. After a long, uncomfortable, and at times painful wait on the public waiting list the first operation ended up costing cost over $13,000 of her savings because the system at the time meant that she was dropped off the public waiting list…
Election Issue 4 -Social Wellbeing – Jody Taplin, PSIS, Levin
“Personally I think it works for people that are motivated. I work to show my kids there is a reason to get up in the morning.”
Jody is a mother of four children (Aged 13, 12, 7 and 6) “all at school now.” She is eligible for the newly introduced ‘Working for Families’ package of family support that the government introduced last year. For her, it is a ‘top up’ to her income, which makes life a bit easier, financially. “Working for Families gives my kids and myself options. One of the options is being able to participate in sports. My kids love to play sports, so being able to say ‘yes’ and pay for fees, equipment, clothing etc is great…
Election Issue 5 -Workers’ Rights – Matt Pilott, ANZ National, Wellington
“I never thought about not joining the union. It’s quite strong belief. I like the idea of remaining under a collective agreement and the implicit security of that.”
Matt is new to the workforce. He worked with ANZ National through a recruitment agency for two months before being offered a permanent fulltime position a month ago. He is now going to joining Finsec…
Following the money - Who owns your bank?
And where are the profits from New Zealand’s four biggest banks going?
We all know by now that New Zealand’s four biggest banks are owned by Australia’s four biggest banks. Westpac Australia owns Westpac New Zealand. ANZ Australia owns ANZ National in New Zealand. National Australia Bank (NAB) owns the BNZ and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) owns ASB.
All four big Australian banks are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. None have shareholders that have a controlling interest, and their shares are spread around fairly diversely, especially among themselves.
But in among all this are two big American banks with significant shareholdings (on behalf of their customers) in all four Australian banks; JP Morgan Chase and Citicorp…
Southern Cross members lead the way
Finsec members at Southern Cross have achieved a strong result in their employment negotiations. Last month members unanimously voted to accept an offer from their employers, which included a 4.5% pay increase, a written commitment not to pass on the benefits of collective negotiations automatically to non-members, and a commitment to staff training…
Nationwide strikes as India tries to merge banks
Nationwide strikes in banks across India occurred following the Indian government’s proposal encourage bank mergers and allow increased foreign investment and control of public banks…
