Twenty-four staff members have been made redundant from ANZ wealth’s platform Oasis Asset Management (Oasis).
InvestorDaily understands the staff members, all of whom worked in the company’s Wollongong base, were notified of their retrenchments in late September.
In the wake of the cuts, staff have contested their redundancy entitlements with a number of them seeking representation from the Finance Sector Union (FSU).
“A number of them have been advised that their employment is redundant, and an even greater number are fearful that’s their fate although they have not received confirmation as yet,” an FSU spokesperson told InvestorDaily.
The spokesperson said the big issue for staff is that in 2010 employees were advised that their workplace entitlements, then under the ING Australia contract, would fall under the ANZ terms and conditions following a company merger.
“Now ANZ haven’t made good on that as yet. What they have come back and said is that they would transfer those staff to ANZ conditions as part of the next round of enterprise bargaining because they are currently on AWAs [Australian workplace agreements],” she said.
“What that means is that their redundancy entitlements are significantly less than what they would be under an ANZ agreement and so one of the big issues is holding ANZ to that earlier commitment.”
In November 2009, ANZ took over ING Australia, which included Oasis.
It is understood that around March 2010, ANZ communicated with staff that it would move Oasis, and its staff, to ANZ Terms and Conditions in the first quarter of 2011.
Calls to ANZ were not returned by InvestorDaily‘s deadline.
