Banks to play waiting game

Press, 25 October 1985, Page 1

Banks to play waiting game

Trading bank employers are taking a “wait and see” stance before deciding on any offers to avert a staff strike next week.

A meeting of employers yesterday decided to wait until staff had held meetings throughout New Zealand before deciding on any possible offers. Trading banks in Christchurch will shut on Tuesday and Wednesday unless employers improve an offer made on location allowances.

Members of the Bank Officers’ Union rejected the terms put to them at a meeting in Christchurch yesterday and voted three to one to strike if a more

satisfactory offer is not made.

The Bankers’ Association’s industrial relations manager, Mr Drew Paterson, said he would not speculate on any offer that might be made.

Yesterday’s meeting in Christchurch voted 766 to 250 to reject proposals made by the association designed to settle a dispute over allowances planned for staff in Auckland and Wellington. Staff in those centres were to be paid an allowance of $lOOO on top of location- payments which they have received for several years. The association had

offered to reduce the proposed allowance to $520, pay an interim 10 per cent wage increase to staff throughout New Zealand, and a one-off payment of $l2O to staff in provincial centres. A packed meeting at the Horticultural Hall in Christchurch voted the package out, and then voted 785 to 232 in favour of strike action. There were 19 abstentions.

The South Island organiser- for the union, Ms Maree Sharland, said she was not sure what sort of offer the association would reply with. No meeting had yet been planned for Tuesday