Changes to Commercial Banking have resulted in approximately 50 ARM & RSO positions across Bankwest Australia being made redundant.

Bankwest has advised the FSU that they aim to redeploy affected staff into other roles within the Bank. In the short term the majority of these roles will be in the soon to be established Business Improvement Group (BIG). The BIG will come under the Head of Operations Bankwest Business and be involved in a number of “business critical projects”.

Directly Comparable?
According to Bankwest the positions in the BIG will be directly comparable to ARM and RSO roles.  Under Clause 36 of the Bankwest Workplace Agreement 2007 a colleague is not eligible for a severance payment if they redeployed into a Directly Comparable Position. A Directly Comparable Position is defined as a position which is:

• at the same level;
• does not entail a change in duties significant enough to be unreasonable in the circumstance of the colleague’s skills and abilities; 
• is within reasonable commuting distance of the colleague’s place of residence.

 
BIG Questions
After attending a recent briefing on the BIG, the FSU has raised a number of concerns with Bankwest. These include:

• Where will the BIG be physically located in each state? 
• What will the structure of the BIG look like? 
• How many staff will be required in each state?
• What will the Grade be for each of the newly created BIG roles?

Do you have some BIG Questions?
Please note down any questions or concerns that you would like the FSU to raise with Bankwest regarding Commercial Segmentation and the establishment of the BIG: