CBA workers furious about back-to-office mandate but bank says it’s not unreasonable

Hundreds of CBA workers have contacted their union representatives to complain about the policy requiring staff to be in the office for at least half of their working time.

Commonwealth Bank workers are furious with their employer, asking it to drop its return-to-office policy and accusing it of forcing even those with non-local teams to be in the office just to engage in video meetings.

Hundreds of workers at Australia’s largest bank have contacted their union representatives to complain about the policy, which was announced by head of human resources Sian Lewis in May.

It requires its workforce of over 48,000 to be in the office at least half of their working time per month by July 17.

CBA staff were “angered” by Ms Lewis’ decree, which was made without consultation with staff or the union, the Finance Sector Union said on Wednesday.

“Hundreds of our members at CBA have contacted the union complaining the bank was overturning working arrangements that have worked well for the bank and its staff,” FSU national secretary Julia Angrisano said.

“It is totally unacceptable that CBA delivers an edict to its staff altering work from home arrangements without any consultation.

“For some CBA staff, their teams are not local so they are being made to go to an office to engage in video meetings with other workers interstate or overseas, or working from home that day,” she said.

“The pandemic showed how well working from home can be achieved and the FSU believes that a new benchmark on remote work has now been set.”

A spokesman for CBA said the bank’s approach to hybrid working was guided by a desire to balance its “longstanding commitment to flexible working and ensuring we deliver the best outcomes for our customers”.

CBA’s policy requires its workforce to be in the office at least half of their working time per month by July 17. Picture: Sarah Marshall

CBA is the only one of the four major banks to have made a group-wide mandate with the monthly quota. Its smaller peers have used less prescriptive guidance while still expecting staff to spend at least half their time in the office.

At a strategy briefing in May, CBA chief executive Matt Comyn said that only about 45 per cent of workers had returned to their office desks.

He said the mandate to be in the office at least 50 per cent of their time had arisen from a need to give more clarity to workers after some “leaders” were finding “it a hard conversation to have”.

“We provided that in the interest of being clear and we don’t think that’s unreasonable,” he said at the time, adding that “flexibility” had been the “centrepiece” of the bank’s approach.

But Ms Angrisano said CBA staff had raised “serious concerns” about the impact the new policy would have on their finances, their work-life balance, mental health and caring responsibilities.

“They complain about the financial impact of increased commuting costs and childcare costs. Some say they will now be seeking employment elsewhere,” she said.

“We want the CBA to suspend the mandate and engage in proper consultation to jointly develop a working from home policy which should then be enshrined in the CBA Enterprise Agreement.”

The spokesman for CBA said the bank had conducted at least three group-wide surveys since March last year involving tens of thousands of staff “on wellbeing, hybrid working and how people preferred to work”.

“We have also provided two months’ notice of our current expectations to help support our people with the time to make adjustments to their current working patterns,” he said.

“Where someone needs specific support, they can discuss individual flexible working arrangements with their leader that suits both their needs and those of our customers.”

The union said Ms Lewis had “failed to show up” at a meeting with the FSU “to have the edict overturned. She left it to HR staff to explain to upset CBA workers why the bank was placing limits on its Work From Home policy”.

CBA’s spokesman said the meeting was never meant to be attended by Ms Lewis or Ms Angrisano.

“Key” CBA decision makers and two responsible for industrial relations attended the meeting with the FSU’s national campaign manager and three CBA union representatives, he said.