…the gossip

Collective employment agreement negotiations between Finsec and AXA concluded this week with a 4% salary increase. 

In the same week AXA, a fund manager and insurance group, also announced that it had increased its operating profit by 22 percent to $59.1 million last year and aims to double the business in five years. 

“While workers were happy to achieve a 4% wage increase it is important to remember that investing in New Zealand through workers wages is the least Australian owned business can do,” said Finsec Campaigns Director Andrew Campbell.

AXA has become the first financial services company in the UK to sign up to the ‘Amicus Charter for Women’. Amicus, the British finance sector union, is campaigning to end the discrimination and consequent unequal pay hitting women. Although women make up the majority of staff working in the British financial services (55%), the finance sector has the largest pay gap of any sector. Women on average earn 43% less than men.

Amicus has drawn up a charter, which it expects all leading financial services providers to sign up to. The charter will commit employers to work with Amicus to tackle the root causes of pay inequality. Amicus believes that ending inequality in women’s pay and career progression is good for business and that employers can not afford to overlook the contribution that women can make if they are allowed to break through the glass ceiling. Pay inequality is also a family issue because it impacts on family incomes.

Story from UNI Finance