Community Banks Are No Collectivists

Date: 27 July 2001

Community banks would not gain community support if they persisted with employment policies that forced workers onto individual contracts, the NSW trade union movement has warned.

As Bendigo Bank attempts to roll out community banking across the nation, the Finance Sector Union has raised concerns that it is provided using Australian Workplace Agreements as the framework for employment relationships.

Only where a community specifically requests otherwise will a collective agreement be offered.

FSU state secretary Geoff Derrick says that the community needs to be wary before endorsing community banking was more than a cute marketing slogan.

Derrick says Bendigo Bank was one of the first employers to embrace non-union enterprise agreements under the 1993 Brereton laws and had taken up AWAs with equal gusto.

"If they want to market their product on the grounds that the big banks are bastards, then that's fine," Derrick says. "But our support will require proper behaviour by you as an employer and as a corporate entity."

Derrick has called on all unions and their members who are involved in community groups examining the community bank concept to demand a collective agreement be the basis of the employment relationship.

He warned that without this, the community banks will actually erode industry standards by giving the major banks grounds to argue that they too must impose AWA s to remain competitive with the new industry player.

The FSU is arguing that the Bendigo Bank should be working with the trade union movement to establish appropriate employment frameworks before any proposal is taken to any community group.

One option could be to establish a common rule state award which would rope all community banks into a minimum set of wages and conditions.

"It is only on this basis that the trade union movement should consider supporting the community banking initiative," Derrick says.

For further information

Contact:	Peter Lewis
Union:	Labor Council of NSW
WWW:	http://workers.labor.net.au/

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