CBA faces Fair Work fight after ordering staff to return to office

Commonwealth Bank is set for a showdown with its staff before the Fair Work Commission over working-from-home rights after employees were told they will have to work at least half their hours at the office.

The Finance Sector Union has lodged a dispute with the industrial umpire, asking it to intervene in the stalemate between the big-four bank and its staff after management refused to withdraw the return-to-office edict from July 17 and said it wasn’t tenable for anyone working for the bank to work remotely all the time.

Commonwealth Bank will face off with staff before the industrial umpire over remote work arrangements.Credit: Michael Clayton-Jones

“Some workers are so unhappy about the CBA’s edict that they are considering whether to resign and seek other more flexible working arrangements,” Angrisano said in a statement.

A CBA spokesperson said more than 15,000 of the bank’s 40,000 staff had continued to work from bank branches throughout the country since March 2022.

“We believe that connection, innovation and the ability to build and strengthen relationships is absolutely fundamental to how we continue to work,” the spokesperson said of the bank’s hybrid approach.

The looming Fair Work fight comes as the white-collar union continues to negotiate new pay deals that contain work-from-home clauses with Westpac and NAB.

The dispute follows a deal struck between the federal government and its 150,000-strong public service for unlimited remote work rights upon request, with applications weighted towards approval, while Indigenous workers will be able to invoke connection to Country as a reason to work from home.

The National Tertiary Education Union is also trying to secure work-from-home terms for its members across most Australian universities.

Western Sydney University has reached a deal with its professional staff over the condition, which has become a key battleground for workplace rights following the pandemic’s lockdowns.

Angrisano said the union would be asking Fair Work to order the bank to offer staff remote work rights on “mutually agreeable terms” after she accused CBA of flouting the terms of its 2020 enterprise agreement with staff to ensure it adequately consults them over changes to working conditions.

The bank spokesperson said CBA had a “cordial discussion” with the union about work-from-home arrangements in a June meeting.

In a July 7 letter to Angrisano, the bank’s head of industrial relations, Tim Clift, denied CBA had breached its enterprise agreement as the requirement to come to the office half the time wasn’t a change that would have a significant effect on employees. He listed several examples of the bank engaging with its staff over the arrangement.

“We do not intend to withdraw the expectation that our people will attend the office for at least 50 per cent of their work time per month,” he wrote.

Clift said state and federal government restrictions that required people to stay home no longer applied, and almost 70 per cent of staff already worked in the office half the time.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions said staff working remotely should enjoy the same rights as those working from the office, after former Victorian Liberal premier Jeff Kennett said people working from home should earn less than those travelling to the office.

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