CBA customer service staff terrified of losing jobs as bank sends roles offshore

Bank staff say they’ve “had enough” in the wake of recent job losses, concerned their own positions are incredibly tenuous.

Customer service staff at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia are terrified of losing their jobs as more and more roles get shunted overseas to India.

Stephanie*, who did not want to use her real name, started working at the bank during the pandemic answering phones. She later moved into working on the messaging chat service for customers.

But now she and her estimated 200 co-workers across the country are living in fear that every day they turn up to work will be their last, according to her.

“The direction the bank is heading, Australian-based messaging agents believe their jobs are being offshored to the point where all messaging agents will be overseas,” Stephanie, in her 30s, from NSW, told news.com.au.

“There is a lot of anxiety.”

In April, the Finance Sector Union (FSU) said the bank had slashed at least 40 roles and sent them offshore to India, taking the total to 500 jobs from the major bank being sent overseas in the past two years. 

A CBA spokesperson told news.com.au they were moving “to upskill our messaging teams to support customers both over the phone and through messaging”.

But Julia Angrisano, National Secretary of the FSU, told news.com.au “We reject the CBA’s claims that they are increasing employment offshore as a way to somehow build skills and capacity inside the bank.”

Stephanie is a CBA employee concerned for her job and future. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

“We’ve just had enough,” Stephanie said.

“Everything’s that happened, it’s just not how you’re supposed to treat people.”

She explained that the role of responding to customers through the messaging chat opened up during the Covid-19 pandemic and she and dozens jumped at the opportunity to join the team.

There are messaging chat teams across NSW, Queensland and Tasmania.

But recently staff have been warned they will switch to a “hybrid” working model, where they do half phones, half messaging chats.

They’re worried the natural progression will be scrapping their role in the message chats entirely, and putting them back on the phones full-time, while their cheaper overseas counterparts take up their old jobs.

“The turnover for phone agents is insane,” Stephanie said. “It’s not an easy jobs by any means.

“A lot of people I know if they had to go back on the phones they would quit.

“People can’t afford to lose their jobs, or go back to a job where they can’t cope.”

Stephanie herself said her mental health suffered when she worked as a “voice agent” for several weeks manning the phone lines.

Julia Angrisano has previously slammed the bank’s ‘fat cat’ leadership team for heartlessly cutting roles. Photographed in Sydney on Monday. Hollie Adams/The Australian

The CBA employee has been in the customer service industry for most of her working life and makes between $60,000 to $70,000 per year.

But offshore workers are paid significantly less, according to the union.

“I’ve done administration, customer service my entire career,” Stephanie said. “It used to be face-to-face, it naturally progressed to this.”

Ms Angrisano, FSU national secretary, said “CBA employees are correct to have serious concerns about their jobs being offshored.”

The union executive added “CBA has been exporting jobs to its fast-growing operations in India in order to drive down labour costs.

“The Finance Sector Union has been campaigning for some time to keep Australian jobs here and urging the banks to invest in skills for domestic workers instead of exploiting workers in India by paying them much less than workers employed under local enterprise agreements.”

When the CBA revealed it was sending jobs offshore in April, at the time, the FSU accused senior “fat cats” at the bank of having no concerns over the devastating decision for affected workers.

“The decades of institutional knowledge lost with these Australian job losses is of course of no concern to the CBA fat cats who make these decisions,” Ms Angrisano said.

“That this loss will result in a diminution of customer service for hardworking small business customers across Australia is of no consequence, relative to the imperative of the bonus and the insatiable crave to profiteer.”

CBA has announced a spate of job cuts in recent months. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

Bank staff are especially concerned as a number of jobs have been cut or moved offshore in recent months.

“It was mostly upper management, but now that they’re starting to do it for frontline staff,” Stephanie said.

As well as the offshore job moves in April which have already been mentioned, a further 224 people were terminated the following month, in May.

CBA announced it was axing 158 jobs from its operations and technology departments, 38 positions in its venture capital unit X15, 25 jobs in its financial services and risk management area, and three jobs in global markets.

A bank spokesperson would not comment directly on concerns held by CBA workers but assured news.com.au that its customer service team remained top notch.

“CBA is committed to providing a seamless customer experience and we are dedicated to supporting our staff throughout this process, upskilling them so they can continue to serve our customers in the most appropriate way,” the spokesperson said.

“Demand for our contact centre teams has increased as a result of the growing incidence of scams and fraud. Scams are becoming more complex and often require long conversations with customers to appropriately manage.”

The bank employs 52,000 people across its entire operations, with more than 10,000 people recruited since 2021.