…the gossip

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is currently assessing the impact that the proposed Westpac takeover of St. George Bank will have on competition and consumers and have asked customers to fill in a survey about their views on the takeover.

Finsec’s sister union the Finance Sector Union of Australia (FSU) is encouraging members, customers and others to participate in the survey. There is nothing to stop New Zealanders taking part too, and commenting on possible impacts on the banking sector here too.

FSU is concerned that the proposed takeover will:

Reduce competition (particularly in NSW and SA), which in turn will lead to increased fees and interest rates;

• Reduce service standards – because customers will have fewer choices about where they can “switch” to;
• Reduce branch numbers; and
• Cost jobs and working conditions for staff.

To fill out the survey: Individuals CLICK HERE

Please send a copy of your response to Chris Gambian at FSU - chris.gambian@fsunion.org.au Also, for more information on the campaign to Save the Dragon, please visit www.savethedragon.org.au

Westpac Australia and St George bank have signed a formal merger agreement which outlines the costs of merging and the savings expected to be made as a result of the deal.

Westpac are looking to cut St George Bank’s costs by 20-25 percent a year, according to an story published in The Australian this week available here http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23762833-20501,00.html

Finsec’s sister union in Australia, the Finance Sector Union said that only an extremely aggressive attack on bank workers will reap the proposed savings of 25% of St George’s costs in three years. “The merger agreement identifies large-scale job losses in head office, support and back office areas,”

The FSU released an online poll of 1000 people this week that found 80 per cent of respondents did not trust promises made by the banks that there would be no branch closures or job losses, as a result of mergers like Westpac and St George.

Finsec’s sister union, the Finance Sector Union of Australia is fighting a plan announced this week for Westpac’s to takeover St George, Australia’s fifth largest bank.

The FSU say the merger could lead to thousands of job losses. The FSU said that the merger would be bad for customers too as the combined bank would have a 25% market share for home loan products alone. The loss of competition from this merger would ultimately lead to loss of choice and higher prices.

In order to go ahead, the merger would need a variety of approvals – regulatory, government, legal and shareholder. The FSU is planning to lobby Government to oppose it and will also lobby other agencies involved in the decision, and will work with consumer advocates opposed to the deal.

Finsec will be talking to the bank about how Westpac New Zealand staff will be impacted by the merger. At this stage it does not appear that there will be any direct impact on Westpac New Zealand staff.

Finsec members can support the FSU campaign to fight for the best outcome for staff on both sides of the Tasman. For more information on the FSU campaign go to:

http://www.fsunion.org.au/Campaigns/default.aspx National Of 27 355, Wellington, New

The Australian Finance Sector Union (FSU) is asking the Australian Federal Government to review all bank licensing arrangements to ensure back office jobs stay in Australia. The union’s call follows a report that Westpac is expected to shift the work of up to 3000 of its back office staff to overseas locations such as India during the next three years.

FSU secretary Leon Carter said the bank’s move would hollow out the Australian finance industry, leaving a nation of bank shopfronts. “Swiping out more than 3000 of these jobs will mean that only the façade of an Australian bank would be left behind.”

Carter said that Westpac was carving up its business and its local employees were being treated as “offcuts”.

The Finance Sector Union of Australia (FSU) is disappointed by the proposal from ANZ’s New Zealand operation, ANZ National, to send up to 500 jobs to Bangalore.

FSU Director of Campaigning and Bargaining Cath Noye said that “Australian bank workers and customers have experienced first hand the difficulties associated with offshoring.”

“We’ve recently seen one major finance company reverse their decision to offshore jobs, and in many instances FSU has successfully campaigned to keep jobs in Australia, particularly where there has been significant customer concern,” said Cath Noye.

“ANZ should lead the way by entering into discussions with all stakeholders, unions, customers and local community representatives giving guarantees on quality and service, but also guaranteeing ANZ customers that their personal information is protected at all times,” Cath Noye said.

Australian banks, and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in particular, have been taking heat for predatory lending practices, after the screening of a Four Corners TV show exposé at the end of March.

Reporter Stephen Long said that eighteen cases of unaffordable loans to refugees had been confirmed but those working within the Sudanese community in Melbourne fear that the problem was more widespread. Four Corners said most did not speak English, had no concept of interest-bearing loans, and were unemployed.

Former National Australian Bank employee Kim White told the programme he was pressured into talking people into bigger loans than they wanted. “I up-sold someone to $80,000 on more than one occasion when they only came in for a $20,000 or $30,000 loan,” he said. “The pressure was sell them, sell them, if the system will let them do it sell them as much as you can possibly sell them.”

The Commonwealth Bank is now changing its lending policy and has waived most of the loans.

Finsec’s sister union, the Finance Sector Union of Australia, is highlighting the issue of “debt stress” in a Better Banks style campaign across the ditch. 

FSU National Secretary Leon Carter notes the interest in FSU’s comments on sales targets across Australian media and says that the prime reason for entering the debate is to ensure the wider community develops some understanding of the pressure finance sector workers are under.

 Late last year, the FSU conducted research with members of the public. Most had some awareness that finance sector workers have KPIs or sales targets to meet, and that was the reason they were continually offered products, usually debt creating products such as loans or credit cards.

However, they were quite shocked to learn of the practice of linking pay outcomes to the sale of these products, and that in effect staff needed to push the sale to avoid a pay freeze, or in the worst cases, adverse pay outcomes or loss of employment.

Better Banks looks set to cross the Tasman, according to Finsec conference guest Leon Carter, National Secretary of the Finance Sector Union of Australia (FSU).

 Leon Carter says that the FSU will run a very similar campaign to Better Banks and take an industry approach to issues for bank workers. “The issues for bank workers in New Zealand are the same issues for bank workers in Australia - performance pay, targets, bullying, sustainable lending, “ said Carter. “One of the benefits of making it a Trans-Tasman campaign is that the banks will need to understand that across the Tasman the unions stand for a better banking industry and that we are the progressive voice in relation to the industry.”

 Carter said that if Finsec and the FSU win the issues across the Tasman the end result is not only a Better Bank system in both countries but equally the banks will understand that any action that they take will be opposed when it is not in the best interest of the workforce on both sides of the Tasman. Finsec and the FSU will be discussing how to work together for Better Banks over the coming months.

The plague of offshoring Australian bank jobs is spreading into new areas of work and will include the transfer of employee records overseas.

Ten People and Performance positions in (in Learning and Logistics) at Westpac in Sydney are being lost as the jobs are being offshored. Genpact in India will now be responsible for storing, accessing and updating the personal training profile of every Westpac Australia employee including names, work addresses and training information.

There are fears that thousands of jobs are at risk of being offshored. Westpac has said that the only jobs safe from being offshored are those with direct external customer contact. The Finance Sector Union of Australia warns that all staff who work with a computer or a phone could see their jobs sent offshore, and say that Westpac is diverting attention from its offshoring by doing it one department at a time.

Westpac Union Council Chair Maxine Mullen said that the offshoring of human resources shows that few jobs are safe from being sold offshore to the lowest bidder. “When we think of offshoring, these aren’t the jobs we think of as being at risk. Now it’s not just processing sites but any job that doesn’t have face to face customer contact may be targeted.”

Maxine Mullen said that Finsec would continue to be vigilant in guarding against any similar moves to shift banking sector jobs out of New Zealand.

The ANZ in Australia is looking to follow Commonwealth Bank and BankWest into seven day trading by applying for a New South Wales licence to open its branches on Sundays.

Competition for Sunday customers in shopping malls is heating up between the three banks in New South Wales. All the major banks also operate Thursday evenings and Saturdays.

ANZ has applied to the NSW Department of Commerce for an umbrella license for all of its branches to open on Saturdays and Sundays from 9am to 5pm. The bank says that they are intending to open on Sundays in Sydney and large regional centres only.

Finsec will be writing to ANZ in New Zealand seeking an assurance that there will be no similar moves to open on Sundays in this country.