Carson, V. 2012 . St. George Bank Staff's Article Review

Carson, V. (2012). St. George Bank staff's cash windfall. The Telegraph. 3 April 2012. Retrieved online: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/business/st-george-bank-staffs-cash-windfall/story-fn7ki9fd-1226317134801

In 2008, the St. George Bank merged with Westpac. In order to retain the core of seven senior executives, who were already being wooed by rivals for their expertise in currency trading and money market management, the then-CEO Paul Fegan offered retention incentives to the tune of up to $50,000. After the merger, however, the numbers changed. Over a hundred employees who had been eligible for bonuses did not receive them and, as Carson (2012) points out, "a group of staff sued the bank over the bonus and redundancy payouts." The lawsuits were settled in court, and the St. George Bank was forced to pay not just the bonuses but interest on them: a total of $3 million. According to Carson (2012), the lawsuits present a major public relations gaffe for St. George Bank, as well as revealing the importance of human resources management. Human resources management concepts and theories illuminate the need for honest and straightforward employee relations: the types of relationships cultivated between managers and employees that engender trust, loyalty, and shared values. The need for retention incentive pay can be a symbolic reflection of those values and the importance of effective management-employee relations. A $50,000 bonus might not be much to a senior executive working on money management accounts, but the gesture speaks millions. Retention is one of the most important human resources strategies used by managers, along with recruitment and relocation of employees. The bank's fiasco may cost it far more than it imagined, when it wanted to cut corners by cutting out their promised bonus payouts.

The Carson (2012) article also points out the way the judicial system can be used to favor employees. Australian employment relations theories are often focused on labor relations, as between companies and the unions that represent groups of employees. In this case, a group of individual employees filed suit against the bank, and the legal pressure became tough enough that the bank bowed down. Australian employment relations have strengthened the power of the employee vis-a-vis unscrupulous senior managers.

Kemp, M. (2012). Promote women or miss government deals. The Telegraph. April 4, 2012. Retrieved online: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/business/promote-women-or-miss-government-deals/story-fn7ki9fd-1226318146254

The Federal Government Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Amendment Bill is being applied aggressively in Australia. As Kemp (2012) notes, "the Bill states companies that don't promote women equally will 'not be eligible to compete for contracts under the Commonwealth procurement framework and may not be eligible for Commonwealth grants'." Critics of the measure call the Bill extreme: even "social Stalinist engineering," (Kemp, 2012). Yet the need for greater gender parity in the Australian workplace remains a core human resources goal. Gender parity is important to management-employee relations on many levels. For one, a greater representation of women in positions of management means greater ability to listen to the needs of female employees. In turn, more female managers means better relations with female employees. Another reason why gender parity is crucial for human resources management is the improvements to employee satisfaction: which can lead to higher rates of retention and the recruitment of the best blood in the business. The "skills shortage" that is evident throughout the Australian labor sector can be readily solved by recognizing the contributions of fifty percent of the population. Far from social engineering, gender parity is common sense. Gender parity also represents the injection of social justice and ethics into human resources management. Finally, the Australian government is seeing to it that gender parity is a priority of Australian employment relations in general. The Federal Government Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace…