This week the union initiated bargaining for a collective agreement for members at Credit Union Central based in the Bay of Plenty.  

We have a good, strong membership at Credit Union Central and a Credit Union that also supports Trade union principles.

Our negotiations at Credit Union South and Baywide Credit Union have stalled for some time due to employers either “waiting for market data” or trying to bring a 90 day fire at will clause into the agreement in the case of Baywide.  

The Westpac Union Council has met with the bank and presented the findings of our members’ targets survey.

A key theme in the survey is that staffing levels in the bank are at a crisis – with increased workloads, unpaid overtime and inability to achieve targets.

The other theme is targets themselves with the majority of respondents stating that they were not achieving target levels – with feedback reporting that aspects like where branches are located, customer base, demographics and local socio economic factors are at play here.

FIRST Union and The Co-operative Bank swapped claims for negotiations last week, and delegates attended conference calls this week to discuss our next steps prior to negotiations to ensure a successful outcome.

ANZ has this week completed the sale of the EFTPOS NZ business. 

EFTPOS NZ has more than 40,000 trading customers in New Zealand, and will continue to operate under its current brand, but with a new owner (VeriFone).

ANZ will continue to process the funds transfer side of the operation, but the new company will take over terminals and servicing.  All permanent staff would be retained after the sale.

ANZ said the move was part of its simplification strategy of focusing on core business.

Another Australian-based contact centre business is establishing itself in New Zealand.

The firm – Unity4 – says it is will employ workers largely from home – using technology hosted in the ‘cloud’ (over the internet).

About 30 staff are already employed and working from their homes in Bluff, Invercargill and Wanaka.

FIRST Union members at NZCU South have so far only had one day of bargaining in March, before adjourning for the employer’s representatives to check market rates. Bargaining was to resume on 26 March.

Weeks have passed and the employer continues to delay. Their purported attempts to establish a new pay system are now being retracted and the employer’s representatives are now considering rolling over the agreement with a percentage increase and establishing a working party to look at a new pay system during the year.

Britain’s four largest banks will have cut about 189,000 jobs by the end of 2013 since their peak staffing levels, and more may follow, according to a Bloomberg report.

Since 2008 Royal Bank of Scotland Plc, HSBC Holdings Plc, Lloyds Banking Group Plc and Barclays Plc have cut 24% of their staff, reducing numbers from 795,000 to 606,000.

Less than a month after announcing half-yearly profits of a whopping $655 million, ANZ have announced they are moving 70 call centre jobs from Melbourne to Wellington.

ANZ’s Australian operations have labelled the shift ‘near-shoring’, but FIRST Union General Secretary Robert Reid indicated that the news signalled a dangerous trend in job creation.