ASB workers to strike as bank proposes an effective pay cut

Thursday 2nd May 2024

Source: First Union

EMBARGOED UNTIL 12:00pm, Thursday 2 May 2024

[UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 12:00PM, 2nd May 2024]

WHAT:

Workers at a major ASB contact centre in Auckland have voted to take strike action and withdraw their labour following disappointing pay negotiations with the employer and an "offer" to workers that would leave them worse off than the previous year.

Members will rally outside the company’s main hub in Auckland on Thursday this week after walking off the job.

WHERE:

Outside ASB Contact Centre, 17 Ronwood Avenue, Manukau City Centre, Auckland 2104

WHEN:

Picket - 12:30-1:30PM, Thursday May 2nd, 2024

WHY:

Callum Francis, FIRST Union National organiser for finance, said FIRST Union members had rejected the company’s offer of an average 3.5% pay increase for all workers because it was a cut in real terms, and would leave union members worse off during a time of real financial difficulty for many.

"Our members are seeking a fair pay increase that would ensure they aren’t going backwards while the cost of living and inflation rate remain high and show no signs of slowing down under this Government," said Mr Francis.

"Members also sought an extra 1 week of annual leave to align ASB with other financial sector employers, but the bank has attempted to invent a new kind of replacement leave to placate them - " You Do You" leave, they call it - that workers can only access if they’ve used four weeks of accrued annual leave in the prior year."

"That’s not fair or reasonable - it’s a project to offload accrued leave balances, and it contradicts the reasonable expectation of self-determining one’s own rest and relaxation needs outside of work."

"ASB made a net profit of $707 million in their last half-year reports but workers’ wages have stagnated since the Covid-19 pandemic and there is no more appetite to ‘do more with less’ - they deserve a fair share of the profits they help to generate, not more spin and weasel words at the bargaining table."

"The only reason for ASB not to give these workers a pay rise that keeps up with inflation is pure and simple executive greed and profiteering at all of our expenses."

Mr Francis said that FIRST Union’s large, inflatable pig - a symbol of the campaign against bankflation - may make an appearance at the protest.

ENDS

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