Perks cut - what benefits do bankers get anyway?

BNZ staff say their perks are being cut and their union says it's part of a wider industry trend.

On Friday, the Workers First union said members at BNZ were upset at the reduction in their benefits.

National finance organiser Callum Francis said staff were losing perks like access to a waiver of the low-equity premium that is applied to home loans, when people have a smaller deposit, some account fees and application fees.

BNZ did not reply to a request for comment from RNZ, but chief people officer Matt Cullum told NZME other benefits remained.

"Like many large organisations, BNZ offers a range of employee benefits," said Cullum, the paper reported. "These include six weeks' annual leave, subsidised health and life insurance, as well as a range of discretionary benefits on banking products.

"On 30 June, we made changes to some of these banking benefits, but our most popular benefits remain unchanged."

Francis said the benefits were things that many staff relied on and some had joined the bank to obtain them.

"A number of our members have actually banked on obtaining and being able to access these sorts of things, and they've just disappeared without consultation."

He said it was part of a wider trend.

"The banks and BNZ in particular have, over the last 5-10 years, constantly eroded the benefits and some of the things people always assumed you would get when you work for a bank, like discounts on loans.

"They've been chipping away at these small benefits that don't cost them a lot in favour of shuffling money away from workers and people in New Zealand towards executives and shareholders."

He said all banks had employee benefit packages or employee value propositions, but many others had been eroded too.

ASB said it offered leave options, health, life and income insurance, wellbeing options, banking benefits and KiwiSaver.

"Acknowledging the needs of our employees differ depending on things like life stage, we also offer a unique choice component within our employee benefit offering, where employees can choose a benefit on an annual basis that best suits their needs, focused on wellbeing and financial progression."

Westpac said it offered personalised staff banking and superannuation benefits, and staff had access to five days of wellbeing leave, as well as their four weeks of annual leave and two days of volunteering leave. They could also purchase additional leave and take a school holiday subsidy.

"We were the first New Zealand bank to become a Living Wage accredited employer, and we also offer paid parental leave for primary and support carers, as well as financial wellbeing, hardship and employee assistance (EAP) programmes that help support our people through the different stages of life."

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