BNZ is considering moving jobs to India.
Callum Francis, FIRST Union's national organiser for finance, says the union is currently involved in consultation meetings with BNZ "over the proposed offshoring of specialist banking roles," although no final decisions have been confirmed by BNZ.
"We believe that the offshoring of banking roles is a lost opportunity to employ more New Zealanders, and we will be making the feelings and perspectives of our members clear in discussions with the bank," Francis says.
His comments come after interest.co.nz was told BNZ's looking at moving, outsourcing, about 50 of a total 80 lending services jobs from its New Zealand operation payments department to Accenture in India. This comes after 70 to 80 jobs in BNZ's sanctions and fraud team were relocated to Accenture in India last year, with local workers affected redeployed.
Asked about the latest move, a BNZ spokesman says the bank's in consultation "with some BNZ colleagues on proposed changes to the way we operate."
"These are operational roles and are not related to frontline banking services. No final decisions have been made, however, as is the case with any potential change BNZ is committed to supporting colleagues and identifying redeployment opportunities where possible," the BNZ spokesman says.
"BNZ is committed to serving our customers brilliantly and delivering market leading products, services, and expertise."
"We want to bring the very best global expertise and capability and deploy it locally, to enhance our customers’ banking experiences. To help us bring global best practice to New Zealanders, we partner with a number of international organisations, such as Accenture, Microsoft, and Amazon," the BNZ spokesman adds.
Francis says regardless of the nature of BNZ’s proposal, First Union's negotiating on the basis none of its members should lose work "or be forced into an untenable position as a result of any offshoring project.”
"Banks are still the centres of communities around Aotearoa and we believe that any proposal to take roles offshore in an attempt to drive wages down could have very negative consequences in many regions," says Francis.
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