Corporate greed minus legal restraint =
Massive job losses and bank closures

As Karl Marx noted a long time ago, there are no limits to corporate 
greed. Despite a record profit last year of $1.3 billion, Westpac, one of 
Australia's four largest banks, has announced it is to axe the jobs of 
3,000 staff and close more country branches. It aims to cut operating costs 
(i.e. increase its profits) by $300 million per annum.

In a note to Westpac staff last week, the Bank's Managing Director, Dr 
David Morgan, said that the job losses were necessary to improve the 
company's profitability. He added: "I regret to say that this can't occur 
without pain." (Theirs of course, not his.)

The bank has indicated that the job cuts will be made within its head 
offices, in areas such as personnel, administration and finance.

However, others expect that the cuts will impact most heavily on rural 
areas, as they have in the recent past. The combined cuts since 1991 have 
effectively crippled the banking services available to many rural areas.

And there's more to come! According to some sources Westpac is planning to 
cut the number of its branches by another 400, leaving the bank with just 
520 branches throughout Australia.

Ten years ago Westpac had 1,704 branches and sub-branches. 

The moves appear to foreshadow the modification of the Federal Government's 
"four-pillar" policy.

Dr Morgan last week indicated that the latest cuts were intended to 
position the bank favourably in the event of the Government relaxing the 
policy.

Finance Sector Union National Secretary Tony Beck commented that: "It seems 
that announcing 3,000 job losses is not enough for Westpac. They want the 
Federal Government to lift its ban on big bank mergers so they can cut even 
deeper."

Westpac's job cuts of a massive 15 percent of its staff positions in the 
early 1990s led to cuts of 7,700 positions by the other major banks, i.e. 
the Commonwealth, the National Australia and the ANZ. The major banks have 
now initiated 40,000 staff cuts and 1,706 branch closures since 1991.

Mr Beck predicted that further bank mergers could result in the loss of 
hundreds of bank branches around the country and up to 40,000 jobs.

With regard to Westpac alone, he noted that: "Since Westpac took over the 
Bank of Melbourne in 1997 it has closed 100 branches and slashed more than 
1,000 jobs in Victoria. You could multiply the effect by 20 to get some 
idea of the devastation if two major banks were to merge."

The widespread community support for the retention of personal banking 
facilities was underlined last week when a senior official of the 
Commonwealth Bank complained that he couldn't understand why people still 
demanded personal service from banks.

The Finance Sector Union has now called on the Federal Government to rule 
out big bank mergers and to introduce a charter of community service 
obligations to prevent further mass sackings and closures.

Said Tony Beck: "Branch closures, redundancies, chronic under-staffing and 
increasing fees have stretched the tolerance of bank customers and bank 
staff to the limit....

"The community needs the Federal Government to rule out big bank mergers 
once and for all and impose a charter of community service obligations on 
the banks."

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