ANZ's NZ strikers target Australian customers

FIRST Union members employed by ANZ took further strike action on Tuesday, including an evening strike by ANZ Direct workers who process calls from Australian ANZ customers.

The ANZ Direct call centre workers in Wellington walked off the job at 5pm for a strike planned to last five hours.

ANZ spokesperson Stefan Herrick told Banking Day they didn't expect any impact on customers using ANZ Direct.

About 1300, or 20 per cent, of ANZ's staff in New Zealand are FIRST members. The current industrial action is in protest at a pay offer and a move to more flexible rosters for new staff to work on evenings and on weekends.

In a statement the union said ANZ was "already serving the Australian market with cheaper New Zealand labour. Now the bank wants to cut back overtime rates for new ANZ Direct staff despite ANZ workers in Australia doing the same job having significantly superior overtime rates."

In an email, ANZ responded: "We pay overtime at time and a half or double time for extra hours worked and this will not change. We are only proposing to change the window for when payment of the penal time allowance applies to new employees so that it is more in line with the market. All new employees will be paid an additional penal time allowance for any hours worked between 7pm and 6am on any day of the week."

The ANZ Direct strike action followed a walk-out by ANZ workers at the Auckland and Wellington contact centres earlier on Tuesday, and picketing of the ANZ-sponsored cricket one-day cricket match between New Zealand and South Africa on Monday (a public holiday in New Zealand) where union members handed out leaflets and stickers.