Mumbai:
The Australian Finance Sector Union (FSU), a frontline
organisation of bank employees, has urged shareholders
of St George Bank to reject sending jobs to India.
Paul Schroder, national secretary of the union, said as
part of its efforts against offshoring jobs overseas union
members would ask board members to commit to keeping jobs
in Australia.
St George Bank had, earlier this year, moved over 76 jobs
from Sydney and Adelaide to Bangalore.
Offshoring with sensitive account information and customer
contact details also was undermining St George's reputation,
a newspaper report quoted him as saying.
"St George cannot continue to satisfy shareholders
with the argument that offshoring is necessary to give
the bank a competitive advantage when they base their
reputation around caring for people," Schroeder said
adding "their actions continue to fly in the face
of concerns from workers, customers and shareholders,"
he added.
The bank also faced shareholder criticism over its practice
of offering no-deposit and low-documentation loans, which
some perceived as too risky.
St George, however, moved to arrest shareholder concerns
about moving jobs offshore and defended its policy of
offering home loans to people with no money for a deposit.
Chairman John Thame said that any of St George's permanent
full-time or part-time employees affected by offshoring
was guaranteed a position with similar conditions within
the group.
The bank's chief executive Gail Kelly said she was confident
of Australia's fifth-largest bank achieving its forecast
for 10 per cent earnings
per share growth in 2007 and 2008.
Kelly said St George had employed 1,000 people in the
past five years and would continue to employ Australians
in skilled positions.
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