Bank union objects to new hours
PA Wellington A need is evident for a substantial rearranging of work at banks if they are to open an hour earlier each day, says the Bank Officers’ Union. The Bankers’ Association announced on Thursday that branches of trading banks will open from 9 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. daily from Tuesday, September 11, in order to provide a better service to the public.
The union, however, has described the decision as high-handed and arrogant and said it was made without consulting bank workers.
The union’s president, Ms Angela Foulke, said that staff at present arrived by 8.30 a.m. and spent the time until 10 a.m. on clerical work, such as deciding whether a cheque would be honoured, so that they could give their full attention to customers when the bank opened at 10 a.m. Tellers could expect to be out of the bank by 4.30 p.m., half an hour after the bank closed, if they balanced, she said.
If the banks were to open an hour earlier, staff wondered if they would be expected to do that work in half an hour, Ms Foulke said.
“If the bank opens one hour earlier there will need to be a substantial rearranging of work,” she said. “People in head offices and ivory towers forget that an uninterrupted flow of work is important and that this particular work can only be done when the bank is closed.
“If it is going to have to be done when the bank is open, systems are going to have to change, people will have to have different jobs, and we will need to be recompensed.”
More staff might need to be taken on, she said. The message she had got was that the banks did not expect substantially more customers and that bank staff would do the same work, said Ms Foulke. She said the matter would be discussed fully at the union’s executive council meeting on July 24 and 25. In the meantime, the union secretariat and executives would formulate a policy to be put to the council and members.
Ms Foulke expected stopwork meetings to be held at branches after the council meeting.
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Press, 14 July 1984, Page 1
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365Bank union objects to new hours Press, 14 July 1984, Page 1
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