from Sunday Telegraph, at: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/index.asp?URL=/finance/4238947.htm Cash is king as workers revolt 6dec98 Some workers � pushed to the limit by rising bank fees � are demanding their slice of the country's $2.6 billion annual payroll bill in cold hard cash. The Association for Payroll Specialists (TAPS) says anger against banks has escalated dramatically since the latest round of fee hikes. TAPS director Ken Low says it reflects the backlash from the "average Joe" who is sick of being "ripped off" by the banks. Mr Low says the association's help line has received up to 200 calls from company payroll officers in the past two weeks. "Employees are demanding cash instead of electronic transfer or cheques as a preferred method of payment," he says. "This is a direct reaction to the recent bank hikes. Payroll officers have been ringing our help line and asking what to do." He says the calls appeared to be directly related to the outcry following the Commonwealth Bank's latest round of rises. These payroll officers are sometimes handling the pay of between 200 and 300 employees, he says. Mr Low says most awards state that employees should be paid in cash, by cheque or by electronic transfer. "The onus is on the employer to pay their employees." So if a group of employees tells their company they have closed their bank accounts and want cash payment, the company is bound to pay them, he said. But TAPS doesn't want a return to cash pay cheques, which it says would attract armed robbers "like bees to a honey pot". Mr Low says that if employees feel strongly about bank fees they should request their pay be transferred to a credit union instead. An average company with 25 employees has a payroll exceeding $1 million a year, he says. "So it doesn't take much imagination to think of the havoc and security threats this would represent to businesses by having large sums of cash on hand. "Employees can vote with their feet. "Closing their bank accounts and opening an account at a credit union is what TAPS would recommend." Mr Low says Australia's 8.6 million workers have a strong voice and are paid more than $2.6 billion annually. A recent Credit Union Services Corp (CUSC) survey of people closing their bank accounts found 35 per cent of respondents did so because of fees and charges. A parallel survey of new credit union customers found 28 per cent had decided to join for the same reason. ============================================ Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List As vilified, slandered and attacked by One Nation mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
