The FSU slammed CBA as it looks to push ahead with a new enterprise agreement that the union claims will “further erode the basic entitlements of staff who have already been the victims of massive systemic wage theft”.
“The FSU won’t stand by and allow CBA to pressure its workers to accept a defective Enterprise Agreement that seeks to legitimise and perpetuate the practices which caused the massive wage theft uncovered in 2019,” said FSU national secretary Julia Angrisano.
“CBA’s proposed Agreement would effectively refit the rules to allow the bank to continue the unlawful behaviour of the past without consequence. Now the Commonwealth Bank is attempting to divide its workforce by pushing forward with a vote on a proposed Agreement that doesn’t pass the pub test. CBA may think that they ‘can’ do this but they forgot to ask if they should.”
But a CBA spokesperson said that it was “reprehensible and simply wrong” for the FSU to suggest that the bank was attempting to underpay its employees or deprive them of legal rights.
“After 11 months of intensive negotiations on a proposed new enterprise agreement, we have told the union that we are approaching the right time for our people to express their choice about the new EA through a vote. The FSU took the opportunity to put its position to a vote of its members more than two months ago and did not receive sufficient support to take action to advance their claims,” the spokesperson said.
“We believe the new EA represents the right balance of more pay, more leave, and better benefits that reflect what our people have told us they want.”
Ms Angrisano said that CBA had previously “ripped off” staff for more than “$57 million” in unpaid wages and that the proposed agreement showed that nothing had changed. CBA was forced to pay back some $53 million to around 40,000 staff in 2019.
“CBA has a history of pressuring workers to sell banking products to consumers who don’t need them and can’t afford them. Now the bank is looking to cram a bad deal down the throats of its own workers,” Ms Angrisano said.
“We can’t accept an Agreement that allows the CBA to continue to exploit its workers. The FSU’s role is to protect our members’ interests and voting no to this agreement is in the interest of all CBA employees.”
The new enterprise agreement will be put to 32,000 staff from next week and will be open to vote from March 24.
