ANZ National Bank makes $6,000 per minute

12 May 2005

ANZ National Bank makes $6,000 per minute

A recently released KPMG financial performance survey records that ANZ National Bank made $680 million net profit in New Zealand last year. That¹s over $6,000 per minute.

ANZ National made an operating profit of $388,000 per employee last year (higher than all the other major banks). That¹s about ten times what the average bank employee earns. Yet the workers¹ current employment agreement claim is a relatively low cost claim.

The Australian-owned bank has argued against fairly compensating New Zealand workers for working weekends and late evenings the same as it already compensates its Australian workers. Yet the chair of its New Zealand board of directors and the only New Zealander to sit on its Australian board, Dr Roderick Deane, receives paritable directors fees with Australian directors, and has used the payment of Australian directors as an argument for how New Zealand directors should be paid.

The bank argues that bank workers should vote on its offer before they strike. Luckily workers already have. They have voted four times, twice in branch meetings and twice at stop work meetings. Every time they have overwhelmingly rejected the bank¹s offer, and not once has the bank made a change to its offer around the key issues that workers have said are important to them.

³ANZ National Bank have not argued the real issues throughout this dispute with its workers. With this level of profit clearly the bank can¹t justify its actions.² said Finsec Campaigns Director, Karen Skinner.

Bank staff are now entering their fifth day of rolling strike action after the bank walked out on employment negotiations last week. Masterton, Paraparaumu, and Christchurch bank branches were all affected this morning.

ENDS

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