Westpac branch shuts up shop

A sudden bank closure in Palmerston North has exposed Westpac workers’ growing unrest with understaffing and a lack of support as customers frustrations with bank closures boil over into abuse.

On Monday, as Westpac announced its half-year profit had doubled to $583 million, the First Union closed up the bank’s branch in The Plaza because only two staff were rostered on.

First Union Manawatu¯ organiser Dion Martin said he was called in at lunchtime, because the employees felt keeping the branch open risked one of them being caught on their own in an emergency or being attacked by an abusive customer.

After a couple of hours trying and failing to get hold of management, the union backed their decision to close the bank at 2.40pm.

Martin said it was appalling Westpac could double its profit, but wouldn’t invest in hiring enough employees to safely staff its branches.

The union would closely monitor the situation, and would step in again to close the branch any day there was less than three employees on duty, he said.

Westpac spokesmanwill Hind said The Plaza branch had fewer staff than normal on Monday because multiple people were off sick. ‘‘It was a rare occurrence ... [and yesterday] our team was back to full strength, and the branch opened for its normal hours.’’

Awestpac staffer, who didn’t want to be named to avoid retaliation, said there were regularly only two staff at The Plaza branch; one handling lending and one on the front counter. They felt The Plaza branch only opened with five employees yesterday because the union got involved.

The Terrace End branch was too short-staffed itself to reliably shore up the smaller branch.

‘‘So, we’ve got no confidence it won’t go back to how it was as soon as the union isn’t watching closely.’’

The staffer said: ‘‘We’re just expected to cope... [and] the lines are getting longer and the customers are getting more frustrated, more aggressive and abusive.’’

Staff have had staplers and chairs thrown at them, and people tried to attack them over the counters, they said.

First Union warned the staffing issues were a recurring problem, and not unique to Palmerston North or Westpac.

WARWICK SMITH/STUFF First Union organiser Dion Martin says the union closed the Westpac branch in The Plaza shopping centre on Monday afternoon because severe understaffing posed an appalling risk to the safety of the two employees who were rostered on.