BNZ Update
14 August 2007
KEY POINTS:
- Following Finsec's Take 5 campaign to win changes to the introduction of the CSC role the bank's General Manager Retail, Chris Bayliss, has agreed to meet on Thursday with Finsec members to discuss our concerns.
- To convince the bank to adopt our 5 positive changes we need to show we have support from workers across the whole bank by signing the petition.
ACTION:
Delegates: please take the BNZ Take 5 petition around each individual person in your worksite and ask them to sign it. A copy of the petition was faxed to all worksites yesterday morning. It is also available on our website. Take the petition around all workers during your morning or afternoon tea break. Or your manager may let you take it around during work time as your collective agreement (clause 14) allows you reasonable time during work hours to fulfil your role as a union delegate. Ask all workers to sign, not just tellers and CSRs, because everybody could be affected by these changes.
A chance to be heard
Following Finsec's Take 5 campaign to win changes to BNZ's branch restructuring proposal the bank's General Manager Retail, Chris Bayliss has agreed to meet on Thursday with Finsec members to discuss our concerns.
The meeting
Now that we have won the opportunity to meet face to face and consult with the bank we will be looking to emphasise three things:
- We support the broad concept of the bank's changes including introducing the new CSC role, but we think that the proposal should be modified to make it fairer.
- Because the bank's proposed changes affect your working conditions and environment the bank has a legal and ethical obligation to seriously consider your feedback and change the proposal if necessary.
- The bank should value collective staff feedback and reflect this in the decisions it makes.
What it takes to win our changes
When Westpac introduced similar changes earlier this year to its branch network, Finsec members there campaigned for, and won, similar changes including the right for the equivalent role to CSRs opting out if they wanted. They did that by working together collectively to send a message from all workers that they all supported Finsec's proposed changes. That is what the Finsec Take 5 petition is aiming to achieve - showing the bank that our changes are positive and have the collective support of a wide range of BNZ staff.
The Take 5 petition
Our petition is the only way to show the bank that we support its proposal but believe it could be much better with some simple changes.
We believe there are 5 key changes that BNZ should make to the CSC proposal that would make it better for workers and customers alike. These changes are:
- CSR's should not be required to become CSCs
- The role should have higher pay
- The targets for the role should be lowered
- A fair system of role distribution and training needs to be implemented
- A thorough review of the implementation of the role needs to take place after 6 months.
We need as many people as possible to sign the petition by Thursday so that we can present it to the bank when we meet with Chris Bayliss.
From the Union Council
