More than a thousand jobs have been cut over the past year
Commonwealth Bank will slash 192 jobs across its several divisions as well as from the Bankwest brand in the wake of its massive full-year profit, as the bank moves to automate its retail banking and home lending, the Finance Sector Union has reported.
FSU said the 192 jobs will be cut from the bank’s back-office operations in Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth, including 47 from consumer finance, 21 from everyday banking, 87 from home-buying operations, and nine from Bankwest lending.
CBA told FSU “automation initiatives” in retail banking and home lending has allowed the bank to simplify processes and cut jobs.
Julia Angrisano (pictured above), FSU national secretary, said in the bank’s campaign to cut costs and boost profits, CBA “has no hesitation throwing workers onto the unemployment queue” after booking a full-year profit of $10.18 billion.
“Workers in the financial services sector should be enormously concerned that Australia’s largest bank is now making workers redundant because of automation,” Angrisano said. “CBA has a huge problem with staff shortages and excessive workloads and cutting staff does nothing to reduce that concern for workers.
“The jobs being lost are specialists across a range of areas and it is hard to believe that the bank can afford to lose so many experienced staff at the same time that it has a significant overwork problem across the organisation.”
The latest job cuts brought the number of jobs lost at CBA over the last year to 1,085, Angrisano said in a media release.
Read more: Big bank to slash up to 230 jobs
A CBA spokesman told The Australian that the bank regularly reviewed “the skills we need and how we are organised.”
“That means from time to time some roles and work will change or no longer be required,” he said. “These decisions are never easy nor are they taken lightly.”
Australia’s largest bank currently employs nearly 53,000 staff across its business. CBA’s annual general meeting will be held on Wednesday.
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