CommBank set to announce further job losses tomorrow

Some Sydney-based contractors, as well as other permanent roles, to go in job losses that have left staff “anxious for updates for months on end”.

Commonwealth Bank (CBA) is set to announce further job losses tomorrow, a source has told news.com.au.

It is understood the number of jobs involved is less than 50.

“The entire organisation is going through a restructure and CBA for a few months has been talking about a restructure of the business called Pace,” the source said.

The source said: “Tomorrow it will be announced that Sydney contractors are being cut, as well as some permanent staff and management roles throughout the business”.

The source said that tomorrow’s cuts are unlikley to be isolated as the Pace program is a three-year piece of work so more job losses are likely to come.

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CBA CEO Matt Comyn. Picture: Commonwealth Bank.

The source added that the changes “have been drip fed to staff for the past three months without any real answers to what the changes look like, even most managers have been kept in the dark, leaving staff anxious for updates for months on end.”

When asked about the job losses, a CBA spokesperson said: “These decisions are never easy nor are taken lightly”.

“Our priority is to treat every individual with respect and care, taking time to talk with each employee impacted to understand individual circumstances and work with them on finding opportunities and building skills to support them for another role in or outside the bank.”

“There are no reductions to customer-facing team members who serve our customers in branch”.

Tomorrow’s cuts will follow a string of similar announcements made by CBA this year. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi.

In an email sent to HR staff today by CBA group executive, human resources Sian Lewis, seen by news.com.au, Ms Lewis said: “This week we will reach a key milestone as part of HR’s adoption of Pace, where proposed roles are shared with each of you”.

“I know many of you are keen to understand more about the updated model, your team’s structure and importantly, what this means for you,” the email said.

“Tomorrow, your leader will schedule some time to talk you through and help you understand our proposed structure and your proposed role.”

“In two weeks, once feedback has been considered, I’ll share HR’s confirmed structure – and appointments to roles will then be finalised but not yet effective.”

“We will continue to work in our current teams and roles until we launch the model on 12 February 2024.”

The email from CBA group executive, human resources, Sian Lewis.

The latest cuts follow 88 redundancies in August, affecting back office staff mainly from the bank’s technology function and impacting workers from CBA’s Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne and Canberra locations.

At that time, Finance Sector Union assistant secretary Jason Hall told news.com.au: “They’re moving to an agile format, cutting jobs to do the same amount of work with less people at the same time as organisations across the world that are rolling back agile.”

“Our concern is that they’re just cutting too quick, too fast and the wrong roles.”

Previously, CBA cut 251 roles in June, with roles in the service and IT departments in the firing line.

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Originally published as CommBank set to announce further job losses tomorrow