Staff strife looms over sales targets

Westpac bank is facing the prospect of its staff taking strike action during the busy pre-Christmas period this week.

About 68 per cent of the approximately 1900 workers at the bank who belong to the financial sector workers' union Finsec rejected Westpac's latest employment offer a week ago because of an insufficient pay increase and performance targets requiring them to sell more debt to customers.

Late last week Finsec members were deciding what further action to take after Wednesday's "National Customer Service Day" which saw them ignore sales targets and "only sell debt products to customers based on what they need and want".

"There's the potential for it to blow into an industrial dispute involving industrial action," said Finsec campaigns director Karen Skinner. "Whether it will be a nationwide strike or not, there will definitely be some stuff happening."

Following the rejection of the last offer, Finsec had written to Westpac requesting further talks, including a meeting with chief executive Ann Sherry. "The issues are so significant and widespread across the bank that she needs to be engaging in the discussion," said Skinner.

Westpac has said sales targets in its last offer were realistic and Finsec's rejection of them showed a misunderstanding of the industry. Employment law specialist Don MacKinnon of law firm MacKinnon & Associates said the focus on sales and debt targets was an interesting aspect to the dispute.

"It's unusual for a moral issue to take such an apparently significant role in the parties failing to negotiate," he said.

"In a banking environment the staff are required to give advice that is responsible and takes into account customer needs. That maybe makes the job different to a standard retail operator who will sell as many Christmas presents to a punter who walks in the door as they can."

MacKinnon also said it was important to note "money is still playing a significant role in this dispute".