Arbitration back in banking

Banks may have to get used to a third party delving into the contractual arrangements with their workers, with the Finance Sector Union beginning to drag the biggest employers off to Fair Work Australia.

Commonwealth Bank this afternoon will face a hearing at Fair Work Australia - the new name for the reconstituted Industrial Relations Commission.

The specific beef of the FSU is the CBA decision to implement a pay rise of 2.0 per cent from the beginning of January 2010 for most staff. The FSU is complaining about the lack of consultation and the exclusion of a small number of bank staff who do not qualify (on the grounds that they do not "meet expectations" on performance indicators).

There may be some dispute as to the commission's jurisdiction since CBA announced the revised pay plans a few days before Christmas, though the pay rise applied from the beginning of January.

The bank had lifted rates of pay by 1.5 per cent in July 2009, which was below the rate of inflation. The bank cited pressures arising from the financial crisis for the low increase and said it would review rates of pay in time.

The bank also froze pay rates for ASB staff in New Zealand at the time.

Middle and upper management missed out on a pay rise on that occasion while the most senior staff and directors accepted a cut in their base rates of pay.

Like most unions, the FSU is making use of the more accommodating legal landscape for organised labour in Australia following the repeal of the Work Choices legislation.

However CBA, like most banks, had declined to renew enterprise bargaining agreements covering most of its staff for some years. CBA's last agreement, reached in 2001, lapsed in 2004.

ANZ and Westpac have adopted a similar approach to CBA.

National Australia Bank reached agreement with the FSU over an extension of their collective agreement in September last year, though it was supported by only a small majority of union members. Even then the FSU took NAB to Fair Work Australia in a squabble over whether a $750, one-off payment under the deal included or excluded superannuation.

The NAB agreement, last renewed in 2006, now runs until December 2010.