Insignia Financial strikes deal with FSU to trial four-day working week and protect jobs from AI
Workers at the wealth manager will trial a four-day working week and be allowed to work from home under a far-reaching agreement struck with the Finance Sector Union.
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Wealth manager Insignia Financial will offer employees a four-day working week and introduce artificial intelligence safeguards under a new agreement struck with the Finance Sector Union.
It will be the first time that a four-day work week will be offered to employees within the financial services sector, after employees backed the agreement at a vote this week.
The EBA also delivers clauses to protect workers rights in the use of AI, which the FSU says will ensure that while the emerging technology can be a factor in a decision-making process, a human must always be the one to make the final call.
Greater transparency on how AI is used at Insignia comes on the back of the new Cbus Enterprise Agreement, which also contained clauses on AI.
The agreement also protects work from home privileges and will deliver a boost to wages with a $1200 payment to come alongside a 9.5 per cent pay increase over three years, starting with a 4 per cent annual pay increase for workers earning below $115,000 (base salary plus super).
Insignia Financial chief people officer Mel Walls said the approval of the company’s latest enterprise agreement is “a significant milestone in our organisation’s integration journey — bringing six instruments into one for the first time”.
“The new enterprise agreement provides a range of new and uplifted benefits that we believe are reflective of a contemporary workplace, such as an increased commitment to flexibility provisions relating to hybrid working,” she said.
“The four-day working week pilot will be conducted with a contained group of people, with the parameters to be designed in consultation with our employees. Details of the pilot are yet to be finalised.”
The new EBA sets out that Insignia will commit to piloting a four-day work week during the nominal life of the agreement. The design and parameters of the pilot will be determined by Insignia Financial after consultation with the union.
Ms Walls said that the current in-office attendance requirement is 40 per cent and would only be allowed to be changed with six months notice.
FSU national president Wendy Streets said an earlier vote was pulled by management after members said they would be voting no, which she added resulted in management returning to the table and offering improvements to workplace flexibility including the removal of an expectation of 60 per cent attendance in the office to be considered a ‘role model’.
“Workers consistently tell us that they value workplace flexibility, and this agreement delivers significant improvements and will allow workers the ability to work in ways that suit them – including more time at home if that is their desire,” she said.
“The acknowledgment by Insignia that a four-day week is an emerging trend and ought to be trialled is an important step forward and win for Insignia workers. It will allow them to play a meaningful role in the evolution of workplace flexibility in our sector.”
The push for a four-day work week has heated up in the past year as Australia’s biggest health insurer, Medibank, has undertaken its own trial with no loss of pay for the next six months, while consulting firm Grant Thornton committed in May to a nine-day fortnight provided staff meet their objectives.
KPMG’s CEO survey last month showed that more than four in five, or 82 per cent, of Australian bosses expect traditional white-collar roles to fully return to the office within the next three years.
This is a significant increase on the 66 per cent who were of that opinion when surveyed last year and comes as businesses such as Tabcorp and the NSW government increasingly wind back work-from-home rights.
Originally published as Insignia Financial strikes deal with FSU to trial four-day working week and protect jobs from AI
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