Union: ANZ staff who made Hisco's mistake would have been instantly dismissed

Tuesday, 18 June 2019

ANZ staff are outraged at the way the bank has handled the departure of its chief executive, a union boss says.

It was revealed on Monday that ANZ chief executive David Hisco has left the bank after an investigation into personal expenses.

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Among them were 'tens of thousands of dollars' for chauffeur-driven cars and wine storage over nine years.

Because they were miscategorised, they were difficult to pick up, chairman John Key said. He said Hisco believed he had authority over expenses so they were not recorded correctly.

**READ MORE:

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* Sir John Key sold beach house to exiting ANZ boss David Hisco: 'It was a transparent issue'

* Sir John Key explains the expenses scandal that cost ANZ's Hisco $6.4 million**

Hisco will be paid out 12 months' notice and will not have to pay the money back but will forfeit $6.4 million in equity holdings. He earnt more than $3 million a year.

Dennis Maga, general secretary of First Union, said he had a couple of hundred members among the ANZ staff.

He said the revelations on Monday had prompted an 'outrage'.

'Our members said they have a sales target they have to meet and if they fail to do they are subject to a performance improvement plan or disciplinary action. They felt they were financing the lavish lifestyle of their CEO while under constant pressure.'

He said, if staff were overpaid annual leave or sick leave, they had to repay it.

Although Hisco had not been overpaid as such, he said it seemed to staff that he should have to repay the contested expenses.

Maga said there should be a Royal Commission of Inquiry, as in Australia, into New Zealand's banking environment.

'I don't think we can believe the CEO is the only one doing it. I believe this is the culture Hisco drove at ANZ.'

Maga said the union would wait to see how Key and the rest of the board handled the situation before determining  its next move. 'If our members committed the same mistake, it would be instant dismissal.'

Consumer NZ head of research Jessica Wilson said customers were likely to be unimpressed, too.

'Consumers will take a pretty poor view of a bank chief executive, who's on a very generous salary, charging his employer for chauffeur-driven cars.

'The banking industry already has a fairly lacklustre reputation. Trust in the industry is low. Consumers also see the profits being made as evidence charges are too high. This kind of behaviour will reinforce those sentiments. The fact that it was going on for some time also raises questions about ANZ's own processes and why it wasn't discovered earlier.'