BSP Country Head Haroon Ali confirms that BSP staff will receive a 1.44% pay increment today while the Fiji Bank and Finance Sector Employees Union says this would be the lowest for any bank in the country.
Ali says their staff are happy although the union is disputing the increment.
Although the union has threatened industrial action that they say will disrupt BSP bank services for customers, Ali stresses that majority of the staff have welcomed the increment and he says only about 20 people turned up for the union meeting last week.
He says the union is demanding a 4% pay increment however they have not provided any details in terms of how it reached this 4 percent rate.
Ali also says 31% or about 130 bank employees are members of the union.
According to the law, more than 50% of the workforce have to agree to take industrial action in a strike mandate.
He also says the staff are happy with the bonus of $2.2 million after the bank made a $52 million profit.
Meanwhile, Union National Secretary, Sailesh Naidu says if the bank goes ahead and makes the payment then it will be bad-faith bargaining by a bank which wants to become the No. 1 bank in Fiji.
He adds that the matrix that was in place was removed by force.
Naidu says they are not addressing the real issue which is the 1.44% increase.
He says instead they think that discrediting the union at any cost means staff are happy.
He adds on the contrary by paying them 1.44% increase they have lost the loyalty of their employees.
Naidu says as far as industrial action is concerned, there are many ways of industrial action adding as they say “there many ways to skin a cat”.
Naidu says they have 200 members in BSP and are now getting new membership forms daily from BSP employees.
He further adds BSP is a foreign-owned bank from PNG, but all the employees are Fijian.
Naidu says they made $52 million profit and they want to pay a 1.44% salary increment.
He further says the biggest chunk of money which remains in the country is the salaries of employees adding now they want to remove that and add it up in their profit and remit it to PNG.
The Fiji Trades Union Congress says they and all their affiliates support the Fiji Bank and Finance Sector Employees Union in its fight against the decision of BSP Bank to apply the lowest salary increase of an average of 1.38% to its employees in Fiji.
National Secretary, Felix Anthony says the union will also seek international support against BSP around the world if it does not reverse its decision to reinstate the salary matrix already in place for the last ten years.
Anthony says the proposed changes by the Bank are totally disadvantageous to the workers of BSP particularly when it has enjoyed making hefty profits ($52 million in 2019) over the years.
He adds that the union stands ready to assist Fiji Bank and Finance Sector Employees Union in its fight for just and fair wages for BSP workers.
