HSBC staff vote on strike

WORKERS at UK branches of global bank HSBC will vote today on whether to hold a one-day strike over pay. The strike by call centre and branch staff would be the first at a British bank since 1997, when workers withdrew their labour at rival lender Barclays.

Trade union Amicus is balloting its 10,000 members at HSBC to decide whether the planned strike on 27 May will go ahead. The result will be announced on 9 May.

The stoppage would take place on the same day that HSBC chairman Sir John Bond is due to preside over the bank's annual meeting. Amicus said it would protest outside the meeting and seek support from customers at large branches.

Amicus said that about 55% of British HSBC workers covered by its pay negotiations received no salary raise or were given an increase below inflation this year.

HSBC insists just 1% of staff did not get a pay raise or bonus, of whom 80% had an unsatisfactory performance rating. A spokesman said that Amicus represents less than 40% of HSBC's UK clerical staffers and just 20% of its British workers.

A spokesman for Amicus said: 'We are saying to HSBC that the doors are still open. We would like to avoid having to strike, but the bank needs to recognize the contribution that its staff made to the success of the company.'

HSBC reported record results for 2004 in February, with pre-tax profits jumping 37% to £9.2bn. The bank said the UK accounted for 23.5% of its profit but 31.3% of costs last year and it set aside a record £164m for pay and bonuses.

'We are concerned that any union action could inconvenience our customers in certain locations at local branches or on the telephone,' a spokesman for the bank said. 'It remains to be seen how many of our staff vote in the ballot.'

Amicus has been at loggerheads with HSBC since UK chief executive Michael Geoghegan took over at the start of last year with a mandate to boost performance. One of his first acts was to slash 3,500 jobs and the union has complained about pressure on staff to meet sales targets.

HSBC has operations in 77 countries and is Britain's biggest bank and the world's third-largest by market value, but its UK business is smaller than those of rivals such as Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays.