5 percent pay rise on offer for bank workers

ANZ National Bank's Finsec union members will receive a 5 percent pay offer but opinion is divided on whether rolling strike action in recent weeks has anything to do with it.

The workers have already declined an offer of 3.75 percent.

Finsec campaign director Karen Skinner claimed the upped pay offer was a direct result of pressure from the strike action.

"Despite the bank's public message that the industrial action has been having no impact members know it is creating significant internal pressure within the newly merged bank," Ms Skinner said in a statement.

But the bank's general manager of human resources Andrew McSweeney said the 5 percent figure was only what they were offering non-union members in the bank yesterday.

The bank had written to the union saying when negotiations were continued, the 5 percent would be on the table so as not to create divisions between union and non-union staff.

Of ANZ National Bank's 6700 staff, 3700 were Finsec members while 3000 were on individual contracts, Mr McSweeney said.

Ms Skinner said the union members still wanted fair compensation for working weekends and evenings, and assurances that the bank would treat the staff from its two merging brands, ANZ and National, equally.

The bank and Finsec would meet on June 8 and mediation negotiations would continue on June 14 and 15.

Mr McSweeney said if mediation failed, facilitation would be the next step.

He said very few banks had been affected by the rolling strikes over the past four weeks, which had been "waning considerably".

In the first week, 18 branches were closed by strike action for between 10 minutes and two hours, seven in the next week, eight in the third and a "handful" in the last week.

"We've got a network of 304 branches so you can see why we're not too concerned at the impact of the industrial action," Mr McSweeney said.

- NZPA