ANZ staff to strike for weekends and equity

20 April 2005

ANZ National staff to strike for weekends and equity

Staff at ANZ National bank have again today voted overwhelmingly to reject the employers latest employment offer and will take further industrial action this Friday. The bank claim will deny compensation to many of its workers for work during evenings and weekends ­ which will put New Zealand workers on lesser terms and conditions than their counterparts in Australia.

Staff and the bank re-entered negotiations last week but the bank¹s failure to address the key issues has resulted in the vote today. These negotiations followed a nationwide series of stop work meetings on April 8.

"In Australia ANZ workers are compensated if they are required to work unsociable hours such as weekends or late evenings." said Finsec Campaign Director Karen Skinner. "Here in New Zealand the same Australian owned bank fails to value the weekends of many of its workers." (Finsec is the union for workers in the finance sector.)

"We don't want to strike, and we know it causes problems for our customers. It¹s just that weekends are the time we get to spend with our family and kids." said Vanessa Murch, ANZ National Staff member; "The bank can stop this strike if they just recognise that our weekends are important to us ­ and they can clearly afford to do so."

Finsec represents 3,700 staff throughout ANZ National, making this contract negotiation the largest private sector negotiation in New Zealand.
Finsec members will hold meetings in most cities and towns around the country at 8.30 am on Friday morning. The details for the Auckland and Wellington strike meetings are:

Auckland Princes Ballroom, Hyatt Regency Hotel Cnr Waterloo Quadrant and Princes St
Wellington Renouf Foyer, Michael Fowler Centre

ENDS

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