The RBA has refused to listen to workers after they rejected their last Enterprise Agreement offer. Now, instead of addressing staff concerns, management is putting forward a near-identical offer in the hope that staff will change their minds.
Read the article here: https://fsu.org.au/4hWS7cN
The Finance Sector Union was quick to criticise the bigger pay cheques. It said the broader workforce has been low-balled during negotiations over a new enterprise agreement.
The FSU said CBA last week presented an offer that would see around 70 per cent of its employees on packaged pay arrangements receive an increase of up to 8.75 per cent over three years.
“The offer will lead to a decline in real wages as around two-thirds of staff will receive a wage increase below the consumer price index in the first year,” the union said.
Read more here: https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/cba-boss-comyn-s-annual-pay-jumps-above-9m-amid-staff-wage-talks-20260811-p60nda
FSU national secretary Julia Angrisano said CBA had refused the union’s “commonsense requests” on surveillance, including more transparency over work data collection and retention, during negotiations for its “overdue” enterprise agreement.
“Big Brother should be booted out of our financial institutions,” she said.
“Current, outdated laws give employers free rein to monitor every keystroke, every conversation and even keep tabs on toilet breaks.
"That level of intrusion is completely unjustified and the FSU wants the use of workplace surveillance to be limited to circumstances where it is necessary to protect worker and public safety.”
Read more here: https://fsu.org.au/4xkniDO
FSU national secretary Julia Angrisano said Commonwealth Bank’s alleged attempts to reduce Australian jobs in favour of Indian workers was the bank’s “latest attempt to make CBA an Australian bank in name only”.
“The FSU doesn’t buy the bank’s excuse that the job cuts are the result of better processes,” she said.
Ms Angrisano said CBA was being monitored as it prepared to publish its full-year profit on August 12. She said its Indian workforce had rapidly expanded in recent years.
Last year the FSU took aim at CBA over similar plans to slash 400 technology jobs at the same time that it hired almost indistinguishable roles at its Indian operations.
CBA was forced to remove 30 job listings in October last year as a consequence.
“RBA executives rely on their workforce to provide high-level support and advice, and they can’t be expected to do it for peanuts,” FSU national secretary Julia Angrisano said. “We urge RBA management to reconsider the worth of their workforce and come back with an offer that’s befitting of the crucial work these people do.”
Read more via The Australian here: https://fsu.org.au/4oHdD7i
“Imagine turning up to work one day at the same office and performing the same tasks as you’ve previously done, but you’re suddenly employed by an offshore company on vastly inferior conditions. That’s what these Bendigo Bank workers are being told to accept,” FSU national assistant secretary Nicole McPherson said.
The FSU is advising its members not to sign the contracts. But the union warns the immediate contract threat is only part of the picture — Bendigo Bank workers across the broader workforce are bracing for further job cuts as the bank deepens its dual outsourcing partnership with both Infosys and Genpact.
“These Infosys contracts are worse than we feared and spell disaster for all Bendigo Bank workers, who know more cuts are coming,” Ms McPherson said.
Workers aren’t “low-value”. They’re the people keeping banks running, supporting customers, spotting risks, solving problems and holding these organisations together.
AI should support workers, not become an excuse for mass job cuts, offshoring and treating people like disposable line items on a spreadsheet.
Finance workers deserve transparency, consultation and a real voice in how AI is introduced at work. The future of AI at work must be built around fairness not fear.
“Employees know better and understand that cuts of this scale will only hollow out the organisation and be felt across the board,” FSU national secretary Julia Angrisano said.
Ms Angrisano said there was “nothing efficient about axing teams by up to half their workforce”.
“That’s simply a recipe for disaster,” she said. “Make no mistake, these savage and cruel job cuts will have a devastating impact on those left behind, who will rightfully despair as they wonder how they will continue to deliver for their members and community.”
94 jobs cut at BT while Westpac scrambles to hire workers through outsourced firms in UNITE.
Westpac says it’s retraining workers and redeploying staff but BT workers on the ground aren’t seeing it. Instead, experienced workers are being shown the door while the bank looks elsewhere to fill roles.
Hundreds of years of experience are walking out the door because Westpac would rather cut jobs than invest in the workers who already keep the bank running.
Read the article here: https://fsu.org.au/4wgN3VQ