Workers lose from banking war

Although the Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評) announced yesterday that the nation's banks could put on a happy face, bank employees are singing the blues as the sector's fierce competition took its toll on their work environment.

Banks are making an effort to resolve bad loans at a time when competition is intense and the industry is consolidating.

But for bank employees, this entails the possibility of labor-rights infringements and a lack of job security.

"Bank employees used to have a prestigious working status, which has now greatly declined," William Huang (黃玉炎), formerly a deputy manager at TaipeiBank's (台北銀行) Yenping branch, said yesterday.

In July, Huang was dismissed for what the bank's management called "spreading propaganda against and humiliating its president" after distributing an e-mail that opposed the bank's merger plans.

A veteran union leader, Huang later filed a lawsuit and won the case at trial, but hasn't been allowed to return to work at TaipeiBank, where he had been employed for over 30 years.

Huang said that he understood the banking sector's desire to set up financial holding companies in order to strengthen competitiveness and cut down on operating costs.

But he insisted that the rights of bank employees should be respected while streamlining and cutting salaries.

Chung Fu-chi (鍾馥吉), president of the employee union at the International Bank of Taipei (台北商銀), agreed, saying yesterday that in the old days, all bank employees were well paid and just had to sit behind counters and wait for customers.

Now, most bank employees have to spend time hitting the streets trolling for clients and competing for business opportunities while the sector's competition escalates, Chung said.

"The competition has become even greater as banks compete for the same group of clientele," said Chung, who has been with the industry for 13 years.

The banking sector's efforts to resolve bad loans while improving loan-loss coverage and credit-risk controls helped lift its rating to "stable" from "negative" by both Standard & Poor's and its local arm, Taiwan Ratings Corp, yesterday.

But the rating agencies said that banks face cutthroat price competition that drives down profit margins, and therefore further consolidation is inevitable.

"The sector's profitability is still under pressure from price competition, which is not likely to ease significantly until further consolidation has taken place," the agencies said in a statement.

To prepare themselves for a competitive labor market, bank employees should improve their financial expertise by becoming multi-skilled professionals, specializing not only in banking but also in equities and the insurance business, Chung said.

A bank union representative urged employees to actively participate in unions so as to guarantee their rights as the sector's job opportunities decline.

While celebrating the National Federation of Bank Employees Unions' (銀行員工會) 10th anniversary, Han Shih-hsien (韓仕賢), secretary-general of the federation, yesterday vowed to further protect bank employees' working rights by urging the government to revise laws and allow representatives from the labor force to take up a seat on the boards of each bank.

Currently, some 100,000 people are working at the nation's 53 banks.

It is estimated that one-tenth, or approximately 10,000 employees, may lose their jobs following the sector's forthcoming mergers and acquisitions, Han said.