Finance Sector Union weighs up ANZ intervention as job cuts flood in
The banking sector is reeling from a week of job cuts, and the Finance Sector Union is considering its legal options. The union is tossing up an application to the Fair Work Commission.
The Finance Sector Union is considering its legal options to challenge ANZ chief executive Nuno Matos’s plan to dump 3500 staff and a further 1000 contractors.
The FSU was locked in meetings with ANZ on Thursday as information about who will go under Mr Matos’s headcount reduction started trickling out from the Melbourne bank. Some ANZ staff are already being told they will no longer have a role.
The union, which represents banking sector workers, is tossing up an application to the Fair Work Commission. This could block or stymie Mr Matos’s plan, which aims to remove nearly 1 in ten people across the bank to eliminate duplication and inefficiency.
The FSU had given ANZ until 5pm on Thursday to respond to its request for more information, which the bank ignored.
“ANZ has consistently engaged with our staff and the union on our proposed organisational changes. We are confident we have met all of our consultation obligations,” a spokesman said.
ANZ employs nearly 42,000 people, including the nearly 3000 who joined ANZ from Suncorp Bank last year, but the cuts are expected to be felt deepest in the bank’s retail and business lending arms.
Mr Matos has said ANZ’s frontline branches and Suncorp Bank would be protected. Nearly 11,000 staff work in ANZ’s retail bank, plus 3300 in the commercial lending arm.
This is in addition to 11,400 in the group back office, providing support function across the bank.
These 25,000 or so ANZ staff are expected to be targets of Mr Matos’s cuts, which had been mooted for months before the career banker announced them on Tuesday.
He joined ANZ in May after taking over from Shayne Elliott and has declared the bank must be simplified.
Mr Matos is also moving quickly to dismantle key pillars of Mr Elliott’s ANZ, including some of his predecessor’s key lieutenants. On Thursday, ANZ revealed group chief risk officer Kevin Corbally would step down from that role, moving to capital management institutional managing director.
No successor or interim chief risk officer has been announced, and Mr Corbally will continue in the role until one is appointed.
Mr Corbally has been a key figure in how ANZ responded to ASIC’s investigation into an alleged bond rigging scandal. His departure came just one day after ANZ’s markets boss Anshul Sidher left with immediate effect.
The banking sector has been left reeling by waves of job cuts this week; National Australia Bank will dump 410 workers and move another 127 roles offshore to its Vietnam or India operations.
ANZ sources expect some of the losses locally would be replaced in its India service hub in Bengaluru.
Bendigo Bank plans to axe 158 jobs under a restructure which the FSU has warned will “gut” its technology teams. The FSU said Bendigo Bank was planning to restructure a team of 637 technology workers.
This is alongside plans to make 13 staff in its mortgage support arm redundant.
The union said Bendigo’s decision has been rationalised as part of plans to “optimise” its branches and create “efficiencies” through automation. FSU national secretary Julia Angrisano said Bendigo was “following the same playbook as the big banks”.
“Workers are being blindsided, jobs are being offshored and customers are left with poor service. They’re no different to ANZ or NAB,” she said.
“Customers, once again, pay the price when experienced technology and mortgage help staff are lost, with longer wait times and reduced services – particularly at a time when lending will be more accessible to first home buyers.”
Bank workers are also staring down the arrival of artificial intelligence and the FSU was recently in Canberra alongside the ACTU and other unions to lobby on the issue.
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