Bank union resorting to strikes to preserve power

SYDNEY: Only in our union-dominated country was it possible for a union to call a strike because it wanted the employer to spend less money on annual pay rises. Yet this was the reason for the 24-hour strike staged at Hellenic Bank on Friday by the bank employees' union Etyk, which has dug in its heels and has been refusing to sit at negotiations with management for months now.

The dispute is over which side will decide how the annual pay rises will be distributed, with the bank wanting to introduce a system that will reward employees for their performance and the union defending the unmeritocratic principle of the same pay-rise for all, stipulated in collective agreements. Etyk has demanded a 3.5 per cent pay rise for all Hellenic's employees while the bank has offered 2 per cent for everyone plus an additional 2.4 per cent of its annual payroll cost to be distributed to employees according to their performance evaluation and the market standard for their position.

In addition to this, the bank board has also set a minimum for gross monthly salary of €1,300 which would significantly benefit some 250 staff that joined from the Co-op Bank on wages that were markedly lower than this. The total sum of the pay rises Hellenic proposed would be in the region of €4.7 million, one million euro more than the cost of Etyk's demands. Etyk, however, remains stuck to antiquated practices of 50 or 60 years ago that primarily applied to the factory floor, all blue-collar workers receiving the same pay rise. It does not recognise that the world has moved on since then and no rationally-run business.