I Spy: ANZ back-pedals after staff raise alarm over call recording email, but union wary
ANZ Bank has moved to calm staff fears after an email mistakenly suggested all internal Microsoft Teams calls would be recorded and stored.
Banking major ANZ will issue a clarification to staff, assuring them many of their calls won’t be recorded after an errant email sent them into a spin on Monday.
ANZ had emailed staff telling them it was making a move in its handling of Microsoft Teams calls – the main way staff communicated internally at ANZ – telling them those calls “will now be recorded and stored”.
This came as ANZ notified staff about a change to a compliance technology provider.
Some staff claimed their managers said all calls would be recorded under the bank’s new policies.
However, after a late Tuesday meeting with the Finance Sector Union, ANZ confirmed it had miscommunicated the change.
ANZ is expected to issue an email to staff on assuring them they will not be relentlessly monitored.
An ANZ spokesman said the bank had not changed its call recording policies.
“ANZ only records calls where required to or to improve the quality of our customer conversations, such as in our customer call centres,” he said.
Instead it’s understood ANZ will continue its practice of recording some calls taking place within the bank, while changes would be confined to how they were stored for later access.
These would include “customer-facing” calls at its contact centres – as well as communication taking place within its highly regulated markets business which recently plunged the bank into crisis after its traders mangled a $14bn bond auction resulting in a $26m hit to the taxpayer.
ANZ sources said that only important calls, often featuring a number of staff, were currently being recorded at the bank.
Internal chat messages at ANZ are already monitored and recorded.
The bank recently removed many of its desk lines, replacing staff phones with a Microsoft Teams calling functionality.
The initial news sparked alarm among some of ANZ’s nearly 42,000 staff, already reeling from news 3500 would be sacked and a further 1000 contractors dumped under plans from chief executive Nuno Matos.
ANZ has also been grappling with continued leaks from behind its carefully crafted public statements and internal memos.
Staff have taken to posting about issues at the bank on social media.
In one call shared with The Australian, senior managers at ANZ warned staff they should not speak with the press.
FSU national secretary Julia Angrisano said the union had raised the question of call recording with the bank.
“In an already stressed environment, an email that suggested calls could be recorded is a step too far; workers deserve better,” she said.
“Once again, ANZ is back pedalling and saying they miscommunicated with staff and got something wrong. It’s time for this chaos and disrespect to end.”
ANZ has already been caught out by poor email etiquette, after the bank accidentally told hundreds of staff to hand in their laptops as part of a job cutting round, before those staff had even been told they would be made redundant.
The issue of workplace monitoring comes as ANZ staff grapple with the bank’s work-from-home policies, amid a push for workers to return to its offices.
ANZ has threatened to slash the pay of staff who fail to come into the office at least half the days they work.
Ms Angrisano said bank staff should not be monitored.
“ANZ and other major banks must not allow the drive for digitisation and new technology to become a pretext for workplace surveillance,” she said. “Workers deserve trust, not to be monitored at every turn.”
Some states prohibit blanket recording of calls without explicit permission of parties.
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Originally published as I Spy: ANZ back-pedals after staff raise alarm over call recording email, but union wary
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