ANZ has announced they will be trialing the establishment of direct customer contact roles offshore. For the first time one of the major banks in Australia will have overseas staff dealing directly with customers.

ANZ will establish a collections team in Manila, who will make contact with Australian customers who fall behind in their loan repayments, both personal and commercial lending. This represents a major change in strategy for the bank.

Whilst FSU welcomes the announcement that no Australian jobs will be lost as a result of this trial and recognise the trial will mean employment opportunities for people in the Philippines, we believe that Australian banks have a responsibility to invest in Australian jobs and skills. 

ANZ has said one of the main reasons for this trial is reducing staff turn over within the collections area, which consistently sits higher than other call centre areas. FSU has been talking to the bank for many years about the conditions and policies in its call centre and back office areas and how they are affecting staff morale and turnover.

FSU call on the bank as part of the trial to investigate the reasons behind the high turnover to allow those issues to be addressed to secure the valuable role of collections work in Australia.

FSU believes that pressure to meet targets and the insistence on performance based pay outcomes in an area where staff have no real ability to affect their workflows is one critical reason behind ANZ’s inability to retain staff.

Have your say!

Tell us your thoughts about this trial at fsuinfo@fsunion.org.au .