Staff anger at terms of BNZ leave offer

BNZ staff are angry at the way their employer has revealed its decision to offer six weeks’ annual leave to staff.

The decision to increase annual leave to six weeks from January 1 was revealed to staff this week, ahead of the bank’s latest profit announcement, and described as a way to help improve employee wellbeing.

Chief executive Angie Mentis said it had been met with great feedback and there was no doubt that it was expected to make BNZ an attractive place to work.

But staff who contacted Stuff said the decision was not all it seemed.

It came with the removal of 10 days’ ‘‘domestic leave’’ a year, which staff had been able to use when they needed to care for sick family members. Bonuses and other perks were also cut.

The head of Massey University’s public relations programme, Chris Galloway, said it was ‘‘framing at its worst’’.

‘‘A kind of corporate sleight-of-hand. It is also indicative of a lofty attitude to staff – who, actually, are unlikely to be stupid. Staff will quickly work out that what is being given with one hand is being taken with another.

‘‘This is not only a bad idea per se but even more so because of the bank’s $1 billion financial result. It may well make staff feel – even more than they might already – that they are taken for granted.’’

One staff member, who did not want to be identified, said staff remuneration in general was being overhauled.

Bonuses were being removed for all but the most senior staff, she said.

Banks are removing bonuses tied to sales targets because of conduct concerns, but she said this change applied even to those who were not in customer-facing positions.

Her own pay was set to drop by $20,000 a year if current bonus proposals were adopted, she said.

She said frontline workers were also now being asked to take care of microbusiness customers, without any increase in their pay,.

Staff had their annual NAB share benefit, which she said was worth about $1000, removed. NAB is the parent company of BNZ.

‘‘From a business point of view I can understand where they’re coming from but the secrecy around it and the way they’ve put really terrible news between good news is unfair.’’

A BNZ spokesman said some of the bank’s business banking partners were keeping their bonuses.

‘‘Microbusiness customers have always done their banking in branches. However, for certain things, like lending, they have previously had to go to a business hub for this kind of service. We want to improve this customer experience and make it more end-to-end, so we’re training our frontline branch staff up on how to deal with these enquiries on the spot. This is not an increase as staff are not expected to work longer to handle these queries.

‘‘We have concluded the NAB share scheme for BNZ employees. This was a discretionary programme so there was no guarantee of what people might get each year. The renewed package we have announced to our people gives them certainty over a wide range of benefits.’’

A spokesman said on Thursday that the leave change was a benefit to staff.

‘‘A kind of corporate sleight-of-hand. It is also indicative of a lofty attitude to staff.’’ Chris Galloway Head of Massey University’s public relations programme