Major bank faces strike action over pay   :(

The CEO got 130%, we want more, says union 




HDR
20 Sep 2022

National Australia Bank could be facing an employee strike unless it improves its pay offer.

The Finance Sector Union has rejected an offer from NAB and is threatening to vote on industrial action unless the bank raises union members’ pay by 6% or more, according to a report by The Australian Financial Review.

NAB and the FSU began negotiations on Sept. 5. The bank is proposing a 5% wage increase for its workers. But the union slammed the offer as “paltry” – especially considering NAB CEO Ross McEwan saw his pay rise 130% this year, from $2.3 million to $5.3 million.


“CEO salaries are out of control, and McEwan and his executives are happy to take big jumps in pay and bonuses while telling workers they need to take a cut in real wages,” FSU national secretary Julai Angrisano told AFR. “It is clear that wages are not keeping up with the cost of living, leading to a decline in living standards for many workers.”

The FSU also implied that it would push for sector-wide agreements if banks don’t agree to demands for higher pay. The union said the present system, under which ANZ and Commonwealth Bank are able to forego negotiations, is “broken.”

“If the enterprise bargaining system wasn’t broken, bank workers at NAB would be getting decent pay rises,” Angrisano said. “But the system needs urgent reform because it isn’t keeping up with the changes to work and workplaces.”

Under NAB’s current proposal, workers paid less than $100,000 per year would see a 5% pay bump in the first year and a 4.5% rise in the second, AFR reported. Those making more than $100,000 per year in the bank’s lower-banded positions have been offered 4% in the first year and 3.5% in the second.

However, Angrisano said the 5% rise only covered a minority of employees, “with no certainty of a pay increase for over 60% of staff for whom pay rises are at the whim of executives.”



“All our members need at least a 6% pay rise as soon as possible, and it is not good enough to subject most NAB workers to pay review meetings with executives,” she told AFR.

The union said workers were considering industrial action in the wake of NAB’s offer, which it said “does not keep pace with inflation and current cost-of-living increases.”

“If the NAB won’t act then our members will take action,” the union said. “They have indicated they are going back into the workplace to press the case for industrial action with their colleagues unless NAB improves its offer.”

The FSU also blasted the bank for what it said were “attempts to claw back conditions like annual leave loading and rostered days off” and NAB’s refusal to acknowledge unpaid overtime, AFR reported.

The FSU released a report last year saying that “regular additional unpaid hours amount to another version of wage theft” and left workers “suffering unbearable levels of stress and anxiety, as well as problems sleeping, and in some cases [workers] said they had been left ‘mentally and physically broken.’”


“It is unacceptable that members are being bullied into working up to 70 hours a week without being paid, to meet the excessive demands of their employer,” Angrisano told AFR.

The report surveyed employees who said they were expected to work overtime and feared consequences up to and including termination if they complained or refused.

“CEO salaries are out of control, and McEwan and his executives are happy to take big jumps in pay and bonuses while telling workers they need to take a cut in real wages,” FSU national secretary Julai Angrisano told AFR. “It is clear that wages are not keeping up with the cost of living, leading to a decline in living standards for many workers.”   :(

It's not as if they're doing much of a job with it, either...

They were prior to the GFC & during govt bailouts they helped themselves to more ..allowed companies to fold whilst they took executive bonuses from the bailout funds....

Australian Institutions learnt nothing from the GFC and the CEO salaries are still out of control today.

It's a stinking boys/girls club - a sacred cow that needs to be culled.

Gnads wrote on Sep 21^st, 2022 at 3:06pm:

They were prior to the GFC & during govt bailouts they helped themselves to more ..allowed companies to fold whilst they took executive bonuses from the bailout funds.... Australian Institutions learnt nothing from the GFC and the CEO salaries are still out of control today. It's a stinking boys/girls club - a sacred cow that needs to be culled.

End stage capitalism in other words?

Just the management of greed... not actual performance ... or , as Bob Carr said once - "You have to admit I run a mean committee!"

Pharkall else but there you have it... these people are massively paid to sit around and pretend they are doing something when the reality is that it is others doing the work and they are playing committee - just like the political caste.

How is Joyce worth $25m+ to ruin QANTAS?  I don't fly QANTAS any more.... that prick sacked some hosties and pilots I knew...

Where did this ridiculous idea come from that these people are worth all that money to ruin company after company?  they flit in from somewhere else to run a company they know nothing about - proceed to wreck it and reduce it to a skeleton like Gordon Gecko - and disappear into the moonlight with a swag of unearned cash....

I reckon $500k is plenty for that work... not millions....

A bloody disgrace. The tough times don't apply to everyone it seems.

FutureTheLeftWant wrote on Sep 21^st, 2022 at 3:18pm:

Gnads wrote on Sep 21st, 2022 at 3:06pm: They were prior to the GFC & during govt bailouts they helped themselves to more ..allowed companies to fold whilst they took executive bonuses from the bailout funds.... Australian Institutions learnt nothing from the GFC and the CEO salaries are still out of control today. It's a stinking boys/girls club - a sacred cow that needs to be culled. End stage capitalism in other words?

If that were the case you would have to forego your massive salary & assets.....

ey greeny boy?

whiteknight wrote on Sep 21^st, 2022 at 8:08am:

especially considering NAB CEO Ross McEwan saw his pay rise 130% this year, from $2.3 million to $5.3 million.

WTF  :D :D :D

ridiculous that those on the front line don't get enough to survive and gets to play golf 20hrs a week and get that sort of money

John Smith wrote on Sep 21^st, 2022 at 5:31pm:

whiteknight wrote on Sep 21st, 2022 at 8:08am: especially considering NAB CEO Ross McEwan saw his pay rise 130% this year, from $2.3 million to $5.3 million. WTF  :D :D :D ridiculous that those on the front line don't get enough to survive and gets to play golf 20hrs a week and get that sort of money

Here's to a few good heart attacks on the golf course, eh?  Someone said last week that the way things are going here, soon workers with full time jobs will be getting food stamps to get by.

Time for that revolution... jeez - with the mortgage hikes and consequent rental hikes, many of these rentals will lie fallow and become squats.... ending up as slums.   8-)

Maybe the landlords will get the same treatment as the Red Guards handed out to them - and be 'rigorously straitened' in confinement until they relent and confess.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXAOTjNheVg

Survival of the Richest. ;D