ANZ logoA while back ANZ ran TV and print advertisements to demonstrate what a wonderful corporate citizen they were. The ads showed staff working in the community, and portrayed the bank as having a social conscience. No wonder they ditched the ads.

Today it was announced in the SST that another 200 middle management positions will be made redundant – that’s on top of moving their call centre to India (500 jobs) and axing other front-line staff (200 jobs).

What’s more shocking is that ANZ National is one of the more profitable banking groups – having made a profit of $1.16 billion last year, after tax – slightly down on the previous year but still bloody good in a depressed market.

As Andrew Campbell of FINSEC says:

They got all of their bank deposits underwritten by the government, they’ve had all of their off-shore borrowing guaranteed by the government what does New Zealand get in return? … Further job cuts adding to the recession.

When does big business ever feel moved to look after it’s workers?

When does ANZ National ever look at their balance sheet (in this case $1.16 billion for one year) and say to themselves, “You know what – things are a bit dire at the moment, but it’s going to get better – we’ve got money in the bank, we can wear some short term losses until things get back to normal – let’s not make anyone redundant.”

Now we know the answer.

Never.

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