The Finance Sector Union claims CBA made local workers redundant while simultaneously hiring for the same roles offshore
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has refuted union claims that it reduced its Australian workforce to outsource the roles to India.
A spokesperson from the bank told HRD that it met with the Finance Sector Union (FSU) this week to respond to the offhshoring accusations.
"We refute their claims and have met with the union this week to respond in detail and assure them that there is no basis to their allegations," a Commonwealth Bank spokesperson said.
Alleged employee offshoring
The union alleged the bank had made local workers redundant while simultaneously hiring for the same roles at its Indian subsidiary. According to the FSU, 110 job titles that were impacted by redundancies in Australia had a job ad based in CBA India. These roles include:
- Staff Data Engineer
- Senior Software Engineers
- Staff Software Engineer
- Engineering Manager
- Software Engineer
- Senior Data Engineer
"By hiring for the same job, at their own Indian subsidiary, they're showing themselves to have breached the Enterprise Agreement and essentially lied to their workers. This is the very definition of bad faith," said FSU National Secretary Julia Angrisano in a statement.
Angrisano said their members are "outraged" by this behaviour and were questioning CBA's commitment to Australian jobs.
"These jobs are not required to be done in India; they're just moving the work there to take advantage of cheaper labour and further line their own pockets," she added.
Fair Work Commission dispute
The FSU said it has commenced action in the Fair Work Commission, but the CBA said to their knowledge no dispute has been lodged.
The bank clarified that it has 36,572 employees as of June 2024, compared to the union's figure of 35,572. Its workforce increase in India is also a result of insourcing roles that were previously performed by third-party partners in India.
"Like many organisations, we regularly review how we are organised to deliver the best experiences and outcomes for our customers. When roles change, our priority is always to redeploy or skill for a new role or opportunity wherever possible," the CBA spokesperson said.
"We have been transparent in communicating workforce shifts with our technology team over the last three years. This includes being explicit about roles which are declining and offering reskilling and upskilling opportunities to people in those roles."
