NAB staff are working many unpaid hours and “persistent and consistently high workload levels have been normalised by management fiat,” the industry union alleges.

The Finance Sector Union is preparing Federal Court action using the findings from a detailed survey of NAB members “of unreasonable work hours and related underpayments”.

A large proportion of staff at NAB ,classified as Group 3 and above, have reported being required to work unpaid additional hours to complete tasks and meet unreasonable deadlines which were not achievable during ordinary working hours.

Participants kept a four-week diary recording their rostered and actual work hours. 

In week one, two-thirds of participants recorded working more than their rostered hours for every category of hours surveyed.

Almost two-thirds, 664 (63.3 per cent) said this pattern of work had continued for more than three years, the FSU says.

Three-quarters of respondents said working additional hours was ‘expected’ of them. Half had raised their concern about these unpaid hours with their manager.

“Working extra unpaid hours has become part of NAB’s culture and employees who do not comply are bullied, pressured, performance-managed and ultimately sacked”, according to the ‘Working For Nothing' report commissioned by the FSU.

FSU National Secretary Julia Angrisano said members working at NAB had complained about long hours to the union and NAB management for several years.

“It is unacceptable that members are being bullied into working up to 70 hours a week without being paid, to meet the excessive demands of their employer,” Angrisano said.

“A large proportion of staff have reported that they are pressured into working long hours every week by managers who themselves, are also required to work excessive hours.

“The regular additional unpaid hours amount to another version of wage theft.”