ANZ staff striking

Written By: - Date published: 2:31 pm, October 10th, 2014 - 24 comments
Categories: Unions, workers' rights - Tags: ,

All the best to the ANZ staff who are on strike today:

ANZ workers walk off the job

ANZ Bank staff have today gone on strike across the country, with Wellington workers demanding the bank’s $4.1 million boss David Hisco stop ”ratting” on them. …

First Union’s retail and finance secretary Maxine Gay said Hisco earned 120 times more than the lowest paid bank worker.

”That’s $80,000 a week, more than most bank workers earn in a year,” she said.

”Yet he is offering his staff a low pay increase and wants to reduce security so workers would only know from one month to the next which days and start and finish times they are working.”

The bank’s workers are being offered annual pay rises of 2 to 3 per cent over the next two years, depending on where they work and when they joined the company.

ANZ, the country’s biggest bank, is also including a flexible work clause which gives staff four weeks’ notice of their shifts, with no guarantee hours would be spread evenly.

Information about supporting the striking workers is here.

24 comments on “ANZ staff striking ”

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  1. minarch 1
    10 October 2014 at 3:06 pm

    “That’s $80,000 a week”

    Thats obscene……. He should be giving every employee in the company a “happy ending” at least once a week for that amount of money !!

  2. Kiwiri - Raided of the Last Shark 2
    10 October 2014 at 3:37 pm

    I am a customer of ANZ Bank. For many years.
    I would like to email David Hisco, Mr $4.2m. Can only guess his email from searching online. If anyone can point to a link specifically showing his email address, please indicate here.

    • Naturesong 2.1
      10 October 2014 at 4:27 pm

      Media relations spokesperson for ANZ New Zealand has an email address in the form of firstname.lastname@anz.com

      Seems reasonable to try david.hisco@anz.com first and see if it bounces.

      • politikiwi 2.1.1
        10 October 2014 at 5:07 pm

        In my experience, CEO email accounts are monitored by PAs or other support staff, not the CEO themselves. Chances are that any email to the CEO will just get routed through the normal support channels, but there’s no harm in trying.

  3. Andrew Welsh 3
    10 October 2014 at 7:12 pm

    Envy is such a great deadly sin, especially when someone gets more than me. I reckon $35k for a call centre operator is reasonable given the skill set required.

    • One Anonymous Bloke 3.1
      10 October 2014 at 7:17 pm

      What you reckon is worthless. Of no value.

      I expect it’s offered in bad faith too.

    • miravox 3.2
      10 October 2014 at 7:39 pm

      I expect $35k doesn’t mean a lot if workers can’t be sure of the hours that they’ll be working from month to month.

    • ankerawshark 3.3
      10 October 2014 at 8:37 pm

      Andrew Welsh @ 3. It is not envy that drives me to feel outraged by this. I am in a good position. It is a sense of grave injustice at how these workers are treated and paid. And disgust that one human being things he entitled to such as salary, no matter what his “skills set” is.

    • adam 3.4
      10 October 2014 at 8:54 pm

      Fun, how people go rushing to the other sins without reflecting the sin which cause the issue in the first place.

      Greed – greed is what says it’s ok to earn 80K a week, not logic, skills or decency. Greed which drives a growing gap between rich and poor.

      I’m sorry but if envy was really the sin in play here – why are they only demanding a very small wage rise to cover the cost of real inflation, coupled with a demand for job security.

      That said, I must say – The shown pride in the value of your own opinion is…

      Are you are a child of the Accuser?

  4. Scottie 4
    10 October 2014 at 7:13 pm

    The only way ANZ will listen is if customers show their disapproval and change banks in large numbers now. They won’t listen because they want to improve their workers position but rather because it is costing them profits.

  5. wekarawshark 5
    10 October 2014 at 8:00 pm

    Will this include the call centre workers?

  6. Andrew Welsh 6
    10 October 2014 at 10:42 pm

    So I am picking that as only 20% are Union members only 20% of the total staff are striking? I assume the other 80% are happy with their IEA’s

  7. Red delusion 7
    10 October 2014 at 10:50 pm

    Angerawshark get over yourself with you mock pathetic rage. Yourself and the likes of one annoying joke will only be happy under a system where every one is equally miserable. A minor short coming of capitalism is unequal distribution and relative poverty, however certainly beats socialism where every one is equal, equally dirt poor and miserable that is

    • One Anonymous Bloke 7.1
      11 October 2014 at 6:12 am

      What a fool you are. In New Zealand, per-capita GDP is always higher under Labour led governments. Yes, it is – look it up: the NZ Left does Capitalism better than the National Party, and that’s all good with me.

      You cant deal with that reality, so instead you repeat feeble strawmen and false dichotomies, as though we face a binary choice between Capitalism and Socialism – neither of which you are capable of defining.

      Go on, parade your stupidity some more.

      We need better wingnuts.

  8. Maui 8
    11 October 2014 at 1:45 am

    Having worked for this bank in the past I would be very surprised if ordinary workers are not on a good salary compared to most other industries. Working for a bank you’re dealing with the head of the corporate snake. Your good salary comes at the cost of grossly overpaid people at the top, its just the nature of that business.

  9. coaster 9
    11 October 2014 at 7:52 am

    A few points as an anz customer.
    1 the call centre staff do need to be trained well, and be able to assist in the same things as in bank staff, we set our mortgage up over the phone.
    2 the point of difference we have found and the reason we have stayed with anz is the staff, on the phone and over the counter.
    3 all banks are much of a muchness, it seems with all of them the only distinquishing factor is service.

    if a ceo, who from my perspective has no real input into the service his staff gives decides he wants to change things, thus making his staff unhappy thinks this wont lower morale and thus reduce customer service, well hes a plonker.

    as someone above said changing banks to make a point is an option.

  10. Red delusion 10
    11 October 2014 at 11:53 am

    One annoying joke I don’t bother looking up your references, they are never researched, you have your idealogical biases, and you simply go looking for evidence to justify you craziness . If there is any truth to your research it probably can be explained by national growing the economy and labour trashing it, only for national to come in and tidy up the mess. Thus simply lagging indicators.

    A word of advise to anz workers give up on your Union,, make your own way in life, look for opportunities in the financial sector, there are plenty, if your plan is to stick with a dead beat Union for a miserable 2 to 3 percent increments yoy, be recognised for your talent at the lowest common denominator re collective bargaining, more fool you. The Union is like any business ( albeit driven by nutty ideology) they are in it for themselves, you at the end of the day are there
    revenue stream and a stepping stone for dead best union officials into the Labour Party. ANZ and the union are no different the key is to align you goalsto succeed , aligning with the union unless you are a union official there is no upside.

    • greywarshark 10.1
      11 October 2014 at 12:46 pm

      @ Red delusion
      Well that put the cat among the pigeons. What say you, union people. Your forebears let a lot of things slip through and you can’t undo everything they let through. We know know it isn’t all about money, that’s only part of it, it’s guaranteed hours, work security and personal time security – bugger this flexibility – it never ends even when you’ve turn yourself into a contortionist.

    • One Anonymous Bloke 10.2
      11 October 2014 at 1:41 pm

      Fool, that probably explains the praise for the fifth Labour government’s management of the economy by John Key and Bill English in 2008.

      “This is the rainy day the government has been saving up for.”

      Who to believe, someone who can’t research a citation to save themselves, or Dear Leader?

      Meanwhile, you were completely unaware of the GDP figures I mentioned until the moment you read my comment, so your facile conceit that you know enough about the NZ economy to offer substantive criticism is laughable.

      The joke is on you, sweety.

  11. Red delusion 11
    11 October 2014 at 8:37 pm

    One annoying joke, settle petal, life not all about GDP, I thought some one with your incredible intellect and leanings would be across that.

    • One Anonymous Bloke 11.1
      12 October 2014 at 9:05 am

      Quite true. Most people care more about jobs. Employment levels are always higher under Labour-led governments too, and they always pay off the huge deficits National run up.

      We’re better at Capitalism than you are. Choke on it.