Employees in Australia’s wealth management industry had approached the Finance Sector Union (FSU) with fears about future job security, following ANZ Banking Group’s (ANZ) decision to cut 230 staff from its wealth business.
“There’s nothing from what ANZ is saying publicly that gives us any confidence that the job cuts will end here,” FSU national secretary Leon Carter told InvestorDaily.
“Bank workers in many areas are extremely concerned and nervous about job security but they’re also very angry that [banks] are making more money today than they were two years ago.
“What they’re seeing is that their employers whom they’ve stood by through very difficult times are now caring more about making money than they do about their loyal staff.”
ANZ terminated 230 staff last week from its wealth management arm as part of the 1000 job cuts the company announced at the start of the year.
It cited changing customer preferences and margin and cost pressures from increased competition as its reasons for the decision.
While the wealth management sector was experiencing a difficult period, it was not under such pressure that it needed to resort to forfeiting staff for profitability, as they still had the capacity to keep them employed, Carter said.
“ANZ had a choice. There is no necessity that requires them to cut jobs at the moment,” he said.
“It is a choice and we think they’ve made the wrong one by essentially saying workers are expendable on the [advantage] of making or maintaining their large profits.”
ANZ’s attempt to hold a consultation to engage with the 230 affected staff in eight days would be so rushed it could not be genuine, Carter said.
“We can’t see this as anything other than perfunctory and ticking a box,” he said.
“It’s not genuine, it’s not real and the people who worked very hard for them deserve more than just the expediency of having their jobs slashed but certainly they deserve more than a pretend process that they say takes into account their view.”
An honest dialogue with the investment community was necessary to discuss sustainable and responsible levels of profit versus the insatiable demand for exponential growth, Carter said.
A spokesperson for ANZ wealth rival, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), said the company had held firm on its stance following new chief executive Ian Narev’s vow in February not to shed jobs like ANZ and Westpac had planned.
Following the bank’s interim results, Narev said the bank had no plans for wholesale job cuts or sending jobs offshore.
All CBA divisions reported increased earnings, except for its wealth management and flagship retail banking arm.
A spokesperson from AMP said: “We always said that as part of the merger of AMP and Axa we would see the removal of some duplicated roles, predominantly at the head office level but we have been using natural attrition to limit this impact.
“At the same time new opportunities and new roles are being created to cater for the increased scale of the merged business and the growth areas this delivers.”
National Australia Bank’s wealth division, MLC, could not comment on business strategies until it released its interim announcement due out shortly.
Macquarie declined to comment, while BT Financial Group did not respond by InvestorDaily‘s deadline.
