Finance Sector Union takes aim at CBA over India jobs offshoring
The Finance Sector Union has taken aim at Commonwealth Bank, accusing the bank of sending 24 jobs offshore at the same time it cuts back on its footprint in Western Australia.
The Finance Sector Union has taken aim at Commonwealth Bank, accusing the bank of sending 24 jobs offshore at the same time it cuts back on its footprint in Western Australia.
The FSU said CBA notified staff it was creating two new teams in India, at the bank’s wholly owned subsidiary, to support the lender’s retail home loans operations.
The new teams in India will include 24 staff supporting CBA’s loan validations and examinations functions.
The FSU said CBA was making the move at the same time it was slashing staff in Western Australia as part of moves to shift its Bankwest business to online-only. CBA is in the process of closing 45 Bankwest branches, affecting about 350 staff across the bank.
The FSU said almost 130 staff in the Western Australian division of CBA were responsible for the bank’s home lending validations and examinations, warning the new jobs in India represented a risk to local jobs.
FSU national assistant secretary Jason Hall took aim at CBA’s hiring of more staff in India.
“It is more than bad faith to tell shareholders, and the community, that you value Australian jobs doing the work to support Australian customers, then to offshore that work at the same time,” Mr Hall said.
“The Commonwealth Bank committed to the Western Australia government that an additional 500 CBA group roles would be in WA – and yet we have work that could be done by WA people being done overseas.”
But Bankwest said the outsourcing of jobs to India came amid high demand for its home lending staff in WA, where much of the bank’s mortgage processing is done.
“To deliver on its strategy, Bankwest must be able to support customers outside of Australian business hours, which an expanded workforce across time zones allows us to do,” a spokesman said.
CBA has long used its Indian operations as part of a “follow the sun” approach within the bank to service the Australian east coast after hours.
Already the bank has hired more than half the 500 new jobs it plans for the state, including 40 in the lending team.
“Bankwest aspires to be Australia’s favourite digital bank and has ambitious plans to grow nationwide, while maintaining its position as a sustainable and successful WA-based business and a major employer in its home state,” a spokesman said.
This comes as Bankwest staff are voting on their latest Enterprise Bargaining Agreement, with the ballot set to close late on Wednesday.
The FSU supports the proposed EBA.
However, the EBA lacks clauses aimed at protecting local jobs.
Mr Hall said the FSU had written to WA Treasurer Rita Saffioti “to ask her to stand up for West Australian jobs and raise these concerns directly with the Commonwealth Bank”.
“The last Bankwest branch closed at the end of last month – there were plenty of skilled workers that they made redundant,” he said.
“We’re calling on the Commonwealth Bank to come clean and justify how many jobs are being offshored and why they’re breaking the commitment their Chairman made to investors only last week?”
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