Media releases

The impacted area is Retail Home Lending Operations, specifically in Validations and Examinations. The Finance Sector Union’s estimate is that there are approximately 130 employees in this area of the Bank in Western Australia. With the bank establishing 2 additional teams in India with up to 24 employees there’s a risk to the those 130 workers about the security of their jobs.

FSU National Assistant Secretary Jason Hall said:

“It is more than bad faith to tell shareholders, and the community, that you value Australian jobs doing the work to support Australian customers, then to offshore that work at the same time.

“The Commonwealth Bank committed to the Western Australian Government that an additional 500 CBA group roles would be in WA – and yet we have work that could be done by WA people being done overseas.

“That’s why we have written to the State Treasurer, the Hon Rita Saffioti to ask her to stand up for West Australian jobs and raise these concerns directly with the Commonwealth Bank.

“The last BankWest Branch closed at the end of last month – there were plenty of skilled workers that they made redundant.

“The work these staff are doing is sensitive and critical to the loan process. Validations work involves workers reviewing the loan applications to ensure the income and expenses that have been declared are accurate. This involves looking though customer bank statements, tax returns, pay slips, company and trust documents, credit reports and ID/passport documents.”

“We’re calling on the Commonwealth Bank to come clean and justify how many jobs are being offshored and why they’re breaking the commitment their Chairman made to investors only last week?”

Media contact: David Imber – 0413 274 204