What a Bunch of Bankers: ANZ National denies workers a fair deal

ANZ National CEO Graham Hodges has personally shunned giving workers a fair payrise. Finsec National Organiser Bella Pardoe met with Graham Hodges to put the case forward as only 4% has been offered by ANZ National.

Workers are asking for a 5% increase - equal with what inflation is tipped to be during the upcoming September quarter. Instead 4% is all the bank has offered. 4%?! Let's put this into perspective.

According to Finsec:

*Moving from a 4% to a 5% pay rise for union members would cost the bank no more than $1.4 million or approximately 0.12% of the bank's profit after tax (based on statistics of 2006/2007 financial year).

*CEO Graham Hodges' salary is nearly twice as much as the difference between giving Finsec members a 5% instead of 4% pay rise.

*From AC Nielsen figures gathered in an annual report on top advertising spenders, ANZ & National banks combined spent over $28 million on TV & press advertising to the end of 2006.

Links: Finsec | Socialist Aotearoa

In addition to this, the bank has forecast that during 2008 profit will be over $1 billion! ONE BILLION DOLLARS!!! And of this profit, they won't offer workers a tiny 0.12% of this. Moving backoffice jobs offshore to cut expenses has increased the workload for those who are still employed - yet there is no extra remuneration for them. Further to this, the National Bank has recently increased its account fees - with this extra money surely there is room for a fair deal.

A Customer Services Representative, who wishes to remain unnamed says, "Just last week our responsibilities increased. Many workers in the Investment & Lending Specialist departments were made redundant, and work has been redistributed to us on Main Platform. We now have to be able to handle nearly anything. We're not specialists, we're not trained to be specialists. And we certainly don't get paid like specialists."

The price of basic living needs has risen dramatically over the last year. Running our cars is increasingly difficult, along with paying the rent, stocking the cupboard with food & paying the mortgage. We all know that times are tough. So it seems reasonable that when bargaining for a pay increase your boss would sympathise & give you a decent pay deal right?

Article compiled by members of Socialist Aotearoa.