Workers Ask For Cash To Beat Bank Charges
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday December 4, 1998
Workers have begun demanding their wages in cash rather than through bank transfers because of high transaction charges, according to a group representing payroll officers.
The Association of Payroll Specialists (TAPS) says cash would be a "return to the dark days of payroll robbery", but if employees voted with their feet and shifted their accounts to credit unions, banks would be forced to be more competitive.
The director of TAPS, Mr Ken Low, said that since the Commonwealth Bank had announced increased charges last week the association's help-line had taken hundreds of calls from payroll officers reporting requests from employees for wages in cash.
TAPS, which represents payroll officers in about 1,500 companies, was advising members to tell employees to switch to credit unions, whose charges were lower.
"Australia's 8.6 million workers have a very strong voice, as they are paid more than $2.6 billion annually," Mr Low said.
He said going back to cash was not an option for companies because of the security risk.
"We don't want to see people making off with the company payroll or people walking down the street with $600 in their wallets," he said.
There seems little chance of that, no matter how appealing a consumer revolt against banks might appear. In the late 1980s most Australian workers traded off their rights to be paid in cash as part of award or enterprise agreement negotiations. Some awards still allow the cash option but overwhelmingly, if workers do not have a bank or credit union account, they will find it hard to be paid.
But the Australian Bankers' Association says banks are as competitive as credit unions, or more competitive, in this area and consumers should "shop around".
Its director of public affairs, Mr Chris Stewart, said most banks offered at least one account with no charges for up to 10 withdrawals a month. He said the accounts ranged from mortgage or minimum deposit accounts or ones which stipulated that if a wage were paid in, several free transactions could be made each month.
The chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr Mark Paterson, said bank charges were "obviously an issue", but he had no evidence of widespread objection by workers to being paid by electronic funds transfer.
He said most workers covered by awards had negotiated away the right to be paid cash and it seemed unlikely they would seek to reverse that by trading off other conditions.
© 1998 Sydney Morning Herald