Customers want better staffing too!

The Sunday Star-Times annual survey of bank customers show that customers share many of the same concerns as bank staff, particularly a need for a focus on customer service rather than debt sales.

Customers identified adding more personal service staff, reducing queues, and having phone access to staff as important priorities. All of these align very strongly with Finsec member campaigns for increased staffing and relief cover.

Finsec Campaigns Director Tali Williams said despite being some of New Zealand’s most profitable companies, the big banks continue to keep staffing levels at the bare minimum. “Staff aren’t replaced, small restructurings take place that reduce staff numbers, and existing staff are put under more and more pressure to keep up.”

“Customers experience understaffing as poor customer service. Staff experience this as unpaid overtime, inability to take sick leave or holidays, and increasing stress in the workplace leading to health and safety complaints.”

PSIS staff want real change not small change

Finsec members at PSIS have determined their priorities and are taking a clear message to bargaining – “We want real change not small change.”

All sites will be participating in delegate-run claim development meetings and collective activity to support the campaign for a fair outcome in 2011.

Finsec delegate Anna Webby from PSIS Whanganui said that a fair pay increase and staffing were the top issues for staff. “We’re doing a lot more with less,” said Anna. Anna said that if PSIS didn’t address staffing issues, there would inevitably be a negative impact on customer service.

“We just seem to be getting busier and busier, and need to be resourced properly.”

Give staff a break, PSIS!

Finsec members’ campaign for a break from PSIS – with fair pay and better staffing, is continuing with pre-negotiation meetings starting next week. Packs being sent to all worksites will include essential ingredients for a good meeting – tea and biscuits!

Delegates will also be participating in teleconferences next week, as activity gears up for bargaining in early March.

Pay and staffing top priorities for PSIS staff

Finsec members at PSIS have finished their first round of meetings before negotiations and identified the key issues as pay parity with the banks, achieving a fair pay increase, and resolving staffing concerns, in particular issues around relief staffing.

PSIS staff have long been concerned about their pay being well behind that of staff in the major banks. PSIS management have said at previous negotiations that their staff cannot expect pay parity as PSIS is not a bank. However, with plans to register the PSIS as a bank the issue of how their pay compares is not going away. As PSIS moves towards being a bank, ensuring fair pay for staff is as important as all the other aspects of becoming a bank.

“Our members have been through tough times over the past year, but PSIS has done very well financially. It’s important we receive a fair share of the profits we’ve helped PSIS earn,” said Roz Cull from the Invercargill branch who will be on the Finsec negotiating team.

A further round of union meetings will take place in the last two weeks of February, prior to negotiations in March.

BNZ staff organise to win!

Finsec members at BNZ in Harbour Quays and Quay Park Contact Centres got active around the issues of increasing all queue times and understaffing and had a great win at the end of last year.

Staff at these sites signed a petition asking the bank to look at some initiatives including employing part-timers at peak periods, and received confirmation before Christmas that the bank was planning to do just that, and that 14 new staff were coming on board in January.

Delegate Jay Coats said that staff in Harbour Quays had an especially tough time on Mondays and Tuesdays. “Staffing was just not up to par to cover the workload at the beginning of the week – and we all experienced a very stressful start to the beginning of each week.”

Jay said that the bank’s announcement of the changes had been met by a sigh of relief by all staff, and that it was important that all staff recognised the role of Finsec in instigating these improvements through the petition. Jay said union members would keep a close eye on workloads in the Contact Centres.

PSIS and Finsec meet to discuss staffing levels

Finsec representatives met with Murray Anderson and Sam Ros from PSIS to discuss staffing levels as part of a review process Finsec members won in bargaining earlier this year.
Finsec representatives made it clear that the current methodology used to determine staffing levels is not working, given the number of sites experiencing understaffing.
They also told PSIS it needs a more accurate understanding of staff roles, recommended broadening timing and proposed a time and motion study.
PSIS is looking at all of these suggestions as part of the process. Finsec members will have the opportunity to participate as PSIS Regional Managers present a proposed staffing model to branches from May to August.

Staffing discussions with BNZ continue

A Finsec team met with representatives of the BNZ this week to discuss staffing issues.

Finsec advocate Bella Pardoe said the meeting followed up on a number of action points. The bank provided further information on staffing methodologies and compared the results of their Employee Opinion Survey with Finsec’s survey of staff.

“Both parties committed to further work,” said Bella Pardoe. “Finsec are going to advise the bank of sites where staffing is in crisis and workloads are unacceptable, and give feedback on concerns from other sites.”

The bank also agreed to go back and discuss the issue of Industry Training for the banking sector, given that the other big banks are willing to enter into discussions. There will be further meetings to discuss staffing issues in the New Year.

More staff at NBNZ Frankton branch – first win in Finsec’s targets & staffing campaign

Finsec members at the National Bank branch in Frankton, Hamilton, are celebrating the first win in our campaign for better staffing and fairer targets.

Local organizer Maxine van Oosten says that the busy branch was seriously understaffed after losing a team leader and a part time CSO. “Staff were distressed, especially when anyone got sick – they were running from job to job and one person would cover the work of two or three people.”

Maxine said that after raising the staffing crisis for months, that Finsec members finally saw change after all staff signed a collective letter and got a chance to air their concerns at a meeting with their Senior Branch Manager.

“By the middle of this month, the branch will gain a full time staff member, shared with another branch only when conditions at Frankton allow,” said Maxine.

“Now leave can be approved and workloads can become more manageable. All staff worked together to fix this problem through Finsec, and nobody had their head on the block by taking on management.”

Maxine says the bank is still 20 staff short across the Waikato region and encourages other worksites to get in touch with their staffing concerns.

Customers against ANZ staff cuts

ANZ customers say they oppose proposed reductions in branch staffing numbers according to polling undertaken by Finsec.  93% of customers polled said they did not support a reduction in frontline staff in ANZ branches. 96% of customers polled said branch staffing cuts would have a negative impact on customer service. Finsec staff polled 390 ANZ customers leaving branches over the period 1-3 October, in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

Finsec Campaigns Director Andrew Campbell said ANZ should consult customers during its’ branch review process in light of the poll results. “Customers have expressed very strong concerns about the impact of staff reductions and Finsec says they deserve to have a say in the future of their bank.”

In other ANZ branch downsizing news, the cut off date for applications for voluntary redundancy passed this Wednesday. While we do not have official numbers from the bank we understand that there has been considerable interest from staff in the voluntary redundancy option.

4% pay rise at ANZ National – the good and the bad

ANZ National’s next pay run will include the 4% pay rise for Finsec members, and Union Council Chair Cathie Lendrum says there are negative and positive aspects to consider in relation to the pay offer.

“While 4% is less than members wanted and deserved, we wouldn’t have got it without the longstanding campaigning of Finsec members for fair pay,” said Cathie.  “We also need to remember that 4% is more than the average pay increase of 3.5%, and is the biggest annualised pay increase we’ve had in years.”

“As we enter a campaign for fairer targets and more staff, we need to take a good, hard look at the negative positions the bank has taken on these important issues. Targets and staffing are the two issues ANZ National has been most reluctant to address, and more of the same won’t work,” said Cathie. “To win we need more of our colleagues to join our union, and to all be more active in support of what we want.”