We have made social diversity a priority. Our diversity program is led by our Head of Advancement of Diversity and Women and our Diversity Council. It involves Group-wide and Business Unit specific initiatives.
In 2005, 10,627 staff completed discrimination and harassment courses and a variety of programs tailored to women’s development needs have been introduced within ANZ. For example, senior female leaders run a mentoring program for young women within the organisation. Initiatives such as these are designed to increase the representation of females in management. At present women fill some 36% of management roles and 19% of executive roles.
For the past four years the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) has recognised ANZ as an ‘Employer of Choice for Women’. In 2005, EOWA also recognised ANZ as the Leading Australian Organisation for the Advancement of Women (for organisations of more than 500 employees).
Following the introduction of ANZ’s Career Extension program, which gives staff the option to continue working with ANZ beyond the traditional retirement age, a new policy was launched enabling employees who are 55 years and older, and who have performed satisfactorily in the company for at least five years, the right to move to a part time working arrangement.
We also continued our partnership with the Aboriginal Employment Scheme (AES) in rural and regional Australia to support local communities and local Indigenous employment. This year we worked with AES to enable 13 school students to participate in traineeships with ANZ as part of their final year studies.
We began revising our Disability Action Plan in 2004 and will complete the review in December 2005. A disability support network was also established during the year.
We know we have more to do to better understand the demographics of our workforce. Towards the end of 2005 we will conduct our first organisation-wide census and the results of this will be used to further develop our approach to workforce diversity and inclusion.
In October this year ANZ’s Payments centre was recognised with a Diversity@Work Award for employment and inclusion of culturally and linguistically diverse Australians. Payments was also recognised by the Victorian Multicultural Commission for Excellence in Multicultural Affairs in December 2004.
Life balance
Creating a balance between work, leisure, family and the other roles can only make for more fulfilled staff.
In December 2004 maternity/parental leave was doubled – from six to 12 weeks fully paid, with no minimum service requirements to qualify. When parents return to work they can apply for part-time positions while retaining the right to return to a full-time role.
Other flexible options include Lifestyle Leave, which offers up to an additional four weeks leave for any purpose and Career Breaks of up to five years.
All permanent employees are able to pay part or all of their childcare fees at one of the five participating ABC Centres via a pre-tax salary deduction. We hope to have 10 such centres by the end of 2006.
Workplace relationships
ANZ respects the rights of employees to join associations of their choice and the employment conditions of our staff in Australia are derived from the ANZ Group Award 1998 and the ANZ/Finance Sector Union (FSU) Agreement 1998.
In October 2005, ANZ and the FSU resolved a long-standing dispute over the interpretation of the hours of work clause in the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA), reaching agreement about how rostered days off (RDOs) should operate for non-managerial employees. We held a vote of all Australian employees to vary ANZ’s Enterprise Bargaining Agreement to reflect the agreement between ANZ and the FSU. ANZ and the FSU issued a joint announcement that the dispute was settled, and have held joint briefing sessions for employees to explain the agreement, and the voting process. More than 7,900 Australian staff participated in the vote, with 91% supporting the variation of the EBA.
