Yahoo Finance CBA’s ‘appalling’ move to slash 83 jobs following $5b half-yearly profit
The major bank is cutting jobs across major bank branches as well as back office roles.
Commonwealth Bank (CBA) has announced it will be cutting 83 roles across the country, just a fortnight after posting a half-yearly profit of $5 billion.
Australia’s biggest bank will be cutting jobs in major branches as well as some back-office roles across New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia.
According to the Finance Sector Union (FSU), this will include 10 roles at the Elizabeth Street and Surry Hills branches in Sydney and nine jobs at the University of Melbourne branch in Victoria.
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Back-office jobs on the chopping block include roles in technology (32 jobs), along with jobs across subsidiary Bankwest’s retail lending operations, consumer finance, everyday banking operations and home buying operations (22 jobs). Further jobs are being cut in customer remediation (10 jobs).
FSU national secretary Julia Angrisano called out the major bank over the job losses.
“This is an appalling decision by the CBA - cutting so many jobs on the back of a huge $5 billion profit, where bank workers could have been excused for thinking the continuing profit bonanza would give them some measure of job security,” Angrisano said.
“But that’s not how the CBA works. This is simply about what the bank calls ‘efficiencies’, which is code for growing even greater profits at the expense of workers and the community.”
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CBA’s $5 billion half-yearly profit was down 3 per cent on the same period 12 months ago. The bank attributed the dip to increased competition, higher wholesale funding costs, customers switching to higher-yielding deposit accounts, plus increased competition in New Zealand.
CBA said it regularly reviewed the skills it needed, how it was organised and the demands of the business.
"That means some roles and work can change or may no longer be required," a CBA spokesperson told Yahoo Finance.
“All our branch employees have been offered redeployment. For the other roles that are no longer required in their current form, we are now working closely with our people to redeploy them into new roles and opportunities wherever possible. While a number of roles are affected, this may not mean that people will actually be leaving the Group."
The spokesperson said the bank's priority was to "treat every individual with respect and care" and work with employees to find another role. The bank currently employers around 54,000 across Australia and internationally.
Westpac cuts 132 jobs
Fellow major bank Westpac also announced it would be cutting 132 jobs across its risk, operations and sales divisions, with some of the roles set to be sent offshore to India and the Philippines.
A Westpac spokesperson noted the changes represented “less than half a per cent” of the bank’s workforce. Westpac said it tried to “keep as many employees in the Westpac Group as we can, through retraining and deployment”.
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