Greedy bank to cut staff again

Thursday, November 01, 2001

For immediate release

Greedy bank to cut staff again

"As Finsec’s Stress Busters congratulate the Minister and themselves on the new stress-focused Health and Safety in Employment Bill, the BNZ’s parent company in Australia is proposing savage staff cuts across the board," said Don Farr, general secretary of Finsec, the union for bank workers.

"Like all of the Australian-owned banks in New Zealand the National Australia Bank has made huge profits this year.

“Yet it seems they are determined to go on doing this at the expense of their staff’s physical and psychological health. Australian workers have calculated that they already give 1million hours a week of unpaid overtime to the bank because of staffing shortages.

“Market sources say the NAB is poised to embark on a $500 million cost-cutting program and that they have hired consulting firm McKinsey and Co to carry out a sweeping ‘growth and performance improvement’ review over three months.

“There is no guarantee that New Zealand workers will not be affected by these cuts and the BNZ is already pared down to an unsafe level.

“If ever there was a need for legislation protecting New Zealand workers from uncaring, greedy, multi-national companies it is now,” Mr Farr concluded.

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