Fighting bank closures

Recent years have shown a worrying trend for the closure of bank branches, particularly in rural and provincial areas. These closures have seen communities suffer as they lose access to  services, in some case having to drive long distances in order to reach another branch. The people who suffer most, however, are the bank workers who find themselves either out of work, or having to move to another role elsewhere.

The Banks try to justify these closures as a way of cutting costs, and because of the growth of online and over-the-phone banking services. While it is true that the way people bank is changing, there are large sections of the community who are unable to use these services ― particularly the elderly and

those whose first language is not English. There are also services such as business banking and home lending that are difficult for anyone to conduct over the phone. As for costs, the major Australian banks (ANZ, ASB, BNZ and Westpac) all continue to make extraordinary profits in the many hundreds of millions per year. The Banks could easily afford to retain its branch network if they were serious about the interests of their staff and their customers, but they are increasingly choosing not to do so.

2018, unfortunately, is not off to a good start. BNZ has started the process in several branches towards reducing opening hours and staff numbers, while Westpac confirmed in late 2017 that it would close five of its branches ― in Penrose (Auckland), Newtown (Wellington), Sydenham, Lincoln and New Brighton (Christchurch). Finally, ANZ has recently confirmed that it will move its Australia Collections department from Wellington to the Philippines at the expense of 39 jobs. The union’s comment that this announcement was “simple greed” when ANZ had made 1.8 billion dollars in profit the previous financial year was widely reported in the media.

Filipino workers doing banking work for overseas companies are generally paid between $250 and $400 USD per month, work in poor conditions and have almost no job security. It is difficult (and sometimes dangerous) to form a trade union in the Philippines.

FIRST Union does not accept that it is inevitable or acceptable for the number of jobs in the finance sector to continue to reduce as it has in recent years. As well as respond to each specific proposal to cuts jobs, we need the public to understand that that the banks’ approach to job cuts is bad for workers, bad for customers and bad for the New Zealand economy. Part of this work will be in the media, part of it through collective bargaining and part of it through community campaigning (as recently happened with the Christchurch closures). All of these require Union members to be actively involved and willing to stand up for their fellow workers. If your branch or department is affected by job cuts, please get hold of your local organiser as soon as possible!