CBA cops Fair Work action for offshore hiring | Australian Markets

The Finance Sector Union (FSU) has commenced Fair Work action in opposition to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) for participating in offshore hiring practices which have breached its Enterprise Agreement.

According to the union, the CBA had made tons of of its Australian employees redundant on the similar time because it moved to rent employees for the identical roles based mostly out of its Indian subsidiary, which has been labelled “a flagrant breach of the Enterprise Agreement”.

The union was first notified on 10 June of 304 redundancies made by the bank throughout its Australian workforce in a number of technology and retail banking positions, with roughly 100 roles being recruited for on the similar time at CBA India.

The union discovered 110 job titles affected by the Australian redundancies have been additionally featured in job ads for CBA India, together with Staff Data Engineer, Senior Software Engineers, Staff Software Engineer, Engineering Manager, Software Engineer and Senior Data Engineer.

“The Commonwealth Bank is not just Australia’s largest bank; they’re our nation’s largest company. For them to make workers redundant in Australia is to make a claim that those positions are no longer required,” Finance Sector Union National Secretary, Julia Angrisano, stated.

“By hiring for the identical job, at their own Indian subsidiary, they’re exhibiting themselves to have breached the Enterprise Agreement and primarily lied to their employees. This is the very definition of dangerous religion.

“We have recognized for years that large banks have had a desire for work to be carried out offshore. Yet we now have the proof that that is taking place in actual time. Our members are outraged by this type of behaviour and critically query CBA’s dedication to Australian jobs.

“We don’t consider that the redundancies outlined in these change processes are in actual fact real redundancies and that in doing so, CBA has breached the phrases of the Agreement. These jobs aren’t required to be carried out in India; they’re simply transferring the work there to take benefit of cheaper labour and additional line their own pockets.

“CBA has continued to ship more work abroad to CBA India. Since first publicly reporting its CBA India FTE in its Annual Report, CBA India worker FTE has virtually doubled by virtually 100% from 2,854 to five,630 in two years from 2022 to 2024. Meanwhile CBA Australia has shrunk by 4% in the identical period (38,153 down to 35,572). This is a shameful act from Australia’s richest company.

“All Australians are paying for the sham redundancy actions of the CBA. Not only are Australian workers being unfairly and reasonably sacked but this is being subsidised by all taxpayers. Bona fide redundancies are taxed concessionally in the hands of the workers. It is especially disgusting that the nation’s richest company is also reducing the tax take as it makes the final payment to hundreds of Australians that we know are being sacked solely to have their work performed offshore.”

The union additionally cited Clause 36 of the CBA Enterprise Agreement, which presents a definition of a redundancy, to showcase the bank’s breaches:

“Your place shall be redundant if the work being carried out by you (or a substantial portion of it) is:

a. no longer required by us to be carried out by anybody,

b. required to be carried out at a completely different location which isn’t within a cheap commuting distance; or

c. restructured in order that some or all of the duties of the place are cut up up between one or more different positions.”