Nearly seven years ago, FSU member Brooke Hopkins made a decision that ultimately led to her recovering nearly $20,000 in redundancy pay in September this year.
Back in 2018, Brooke filed away a hardcopy letter given to her by her then manager. The letter stated that she would transition from a permanent role to a casual position, and that her service as a casual employee would count towards her length of continuous service.
A few years later, Brooke, who worked as a Bankwest teller, moved to another permanent position, which she went on to hold until October 2024 when the closure of her branch made her role redundant.
As soon as she received her redundancy payment, she was suspicious that there’d been an error.
“The first payment I received was just over $19,000, but based on the calculations I’d done, I was expecting it to be more than $30,000,” Brooke said.
“It wasn’t the first time Bankwest had made errors with my pay – there’d been multiple times over the years when my payslip was wrong, so I’d already learned to be vigilant by the time I received my redundancy.”
As it turned out, Bankwest had calculated Brooke’s redundancy based only on her last six years and 10 months of permanent service, rather than the 13 years and four months she had worked. Her time as a casual worker was recorded as a break in her continuous service with the bank.
Sorting out the issue, however, was neither quick nor straightforward.
Bankwest had no record of Brooke’s letter from seven years ago, so it was her word against the bank that her former manager had agreed to continue her service uninterrupted.
“I knew I had the letter, but we’d moved house a few times,” Brooke said. “I was certain I wouldn’t have thrown it away.”
Unfortunately, she couldn’t find it, so she began the frustrating task of chasing the bank for the rest of her redundancy pay.
“I had multiple phone calls with the bank, going through all sorts of different people and sending endless emails.
“I don’t know why I didn’t go to the union from the outset. I thought if CBA could just find this letter then I could sort it out myself.”
Eventually, Brooke contacted the FSU and looped us into the communication she’d had so far with the bank, and we escalated the matter to senior HR.
Around this time, the miracle finally happened: Brooke found her letter in a box labelled ‘fabric’ – almost a year after her branch had closed down.
Ultimately, Bankwest honoured the letter and paid Brooke the rest of her redundancy pay – which came close to another $20,000.
“I’m so relieved I didn’t chuck that letter away,” Brooke said. She offered the following key advice for all finance workers:
“Always check every payslip and do your own calculations – don’t trust what’s on there.
“And always keep your own copy of any communication you receive about your employment.”
Brooke has also long recommended to her colleagues that they join the union.
“A thousand per cent, I would always encourage any finance worker to be a member of our union.”
As chance would have it, it was the FSU who advised Brooke seven years ago not to resign from her permanent position before taking up the casual one.
“At the time, I needed to go casual, and the bank told me I could simply resign and they would re-employ me on a casual basis.
“The union told me they should transition me to casual instead, thereby keeping my length of service, and that’s exactly what happened.”
Years later, Brooke is significantly better off for it – and, of course, for her decision to keep her letter!
“You never know when these things might come in handy.”
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