Bank workers union Finsec has announced that members at ANZ National had voted to strike on Friday August 22 to achieve higher real wages and fairer sales targets. (Updated to include ANZ National comments).
"ANZ National is letting down their customers as well as their staff. Our claims for fairer sales targets, increased staffing levels and a real wage increase would deliver a better deal for New Zealanders," said Finsec's ANZ National staff representative Cathie Lendrum. "The bank can afford a better deal. The difference between their pay offer and what workers are seeking equates to around half of CEO Graham Hodges' pay or 0.18% of the bank's after tax profit for the first 6 months of this financial year," said Finsec Campaigns Director Andrew Campbell. "ANZ National is putting returning as much profit as possible to Australia ahead of investing in the business locally. Not content with saving millions by sending hundreds of jobs to India it is now refusing to improve the local business through these negotiations," said Lendrum. "ANZ National is treating New Zealand as a cash cow. We would like to see the bank invest in the business locally to benefit customers and provide a just wage increase to help staff through these tough economic times," said Lendrum. Meanwhile, ANZ National said it would continue to work closely with Finsec and looked forward to reaching a satisfactory conclusions. The bank said it continued to have the best pay and conditions for staff in New Zealand banking. "Salary payments for non-managerial staff of both ANZ and The National Bank are not dependent on sales targets," ANZ National said. "We pay more than our main competitors for similar jobs, sometimes by as much as 15% more," it said. "Our proposal to our staff for this year will see us retain the industry leadership position while also ensuring fairness and equity for all our staff, which is always a key objective for us."
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