ASB freezes pay for staff & cuts executive pay to protect jobs

ASB today announced a range of initiatives intended to responsibly address the effects on its business of the global economic recession and protect jobs.

Amongst the initiatives being introduced are: a pay freeze for staff earning over $50,000 per annum base salary, with increases being pegged at between 2% and 3% for all other staff; a voluntary salary reduction for the CEO and Executive Leadership Team; options for ASB staff to voluntarily reduce their work hours, either by whole days or hours; and significantly reducing the pool of bonuses scheduled to be paid in August.

In announcing these initiatives to ASB people today, the Bank’s CEO, Mr Charles Pink said, “Our challenge in these difficult times is to take responsible actions to maintain ASB’s strong, sound financial position, for the benefit of our customers, colleagues and the communities in which we operate. These cost reductions are aimed at protecting jobs at ASB in the face of pressures on revenue driven by the global recession.”

“We recognise that a pay freeze for staff earning over $50,000 is a significant step and, in that spirit, I and my executive team volunteered to lead by example and take a reduction in our own salaries. This reduction will take effect on 1 July.”

“ASB also confirmed last week that we would not be moving any of our New Zealand banking operations or roles offshore. This affirmation has been viewed extremely positively by our people, especially those working in call centres and information technology areas where other banks are outsourcing jobs.”

“Redundancies have always been the absolute last resort at ASB and we are determined to do whatever we can to ensure that this remains the case in our business in the future. This can best be achieved by taking action to save costs responsibly now,” said Mr Pink.