Latest news with #Angrisano
The Advertiser
31-07-2025
- Business
- The Advertiser
Bank replaces customer service call workers with artificial intelligence
Australia's biggest bank has cut jobs in its customer call centres in favour of an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot that will answer customer inquiries. A total of 90 jobs were axed at the Commonwealth Bank, including 45 roles in direct banking, due to the introduction of a new voice bot system on the bank's inbound customer enquiries line. A Commonwealth Bank spokesperson confirmed the job losses to ACM, the publisher of this masthead. "Our investment in technology, including AI, is making it easier and faster for customers to get help, especially in our call centres," the spokesperson said. "By automating simple queries, our teams can focus on more complex customer queries that need empathy and experience." The CBA spokesperson said the priority was to "explore opportunities for redeployment" for affected staff and to support employees with "care, dignity and respect". Finance Sector Union national secretary Julia Angrisano criticised the job cuts, saying workers want a tech-savvy bank, but "they expect to be part of the change, not replaced by it". "Our members want to be trained and supported into better jobs that leverage AI," Ms Angrisano said. "Yet rather than invest in its people, the CBA is simply discarding Australians through ongoing redundancies and offshoring. "If this is what CEO Matt Comyn calls productivity, we're seriously concerned about his place at the national productivity roundtable. "His carefully curated commitment to policy reform in Australia just looks like hollow PR when acts like this expose that his real agenda is just more profit for shareholders." READ MORE: 'Very angry, what's next?': Bendigo Bank to shutter services across regional Australia Australia's biggest bank has cut jobs in its customer call centres in favour of an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot that will answer customer inquiries. A total of 90 jobs were axed at the Commonwealth Bank, including 45 roles in direct banking, due to the introduction of a new voice bot system on the bank's inbound customer enquiries line. A Commonwealth Bank spokesperson confirmed the job losses to ACM, the publisher of this masthead. "Our investment in technology, including AI, is making it easier and faster for customers to get help, especially in our call centres," the spokesperson said. "By automating simple queries, our teams can focus on more complex customer queries that need empathy and experience." The CBA spokesperson said the priority was to "explore opportunities for redeployment" for affected staff and to support employees with "care, dignity and respect". Finance Sector Union national secretary Julia Angrisano criticised the job cuts, saying workers want a tech-savvy bank, but "they expect to be part of the change, not replaced by it". "Our members want to be trained and supported into better jobs that leverage AI," Ms Angrisano said. "Yet rather than invest in its people, the CBA is simply discarding Australians through ongoing redundancies and offshoring. "If this is what CEO Matt Comyn calls productivity, we're seriously concerned about his place at the national productivity roundtable. "His carefully curated commitment to policy reform in Australia just looks like hollow PR when acts like this expose that his real agenda is just more profit for shareholders." READ MORE: 'Very angry, what's next?': Bendigo Bank to shutter services across regional Australia Australia's biggest bank has cut jobs in its customer call centres in favour of an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot that will answer customer inquiries. A total of 90 jobs were axed at the Commonwealth Bank, including 45 roles in direct banking, due to the introduction of a new voice bot system on the bank's inbound customer enquiries line. A Commonwealth Bank spokesperson confirmed the job losses to ACM, the publisher of this masthead. "Our investment in technology, including AI, is making it easier and faster for customers to get help, especially in our call centres," the spokesperson said. "By automating simple queries, our teams can focus on more complex customer queries that need empathy and experience." The CBA spokesperson said the priority was to "explore opportunities for redeployment" for affected staff and to support employees with "care, dignity and respect". Finance Sector Union national secretary Julia Angrisano criticised the job cuts, saying workers want a tech-savvy bank, but "they expect to be part of the change, not replaced by it". "Our members want to be trained and supported into better jobs that leverage AI," Ms Angrisano said. "Yet rather than invest in its people, the CBA is simply discarding Australians through ongoing redundancies and offshoring. "If this is what CEO Matt Comyn calls productivity, we're seriously concerned about his place at the national productivity roundtable. "His carefully curated commitment to policy reform in Australia just looks like hollow PR when acts like this expose that his real agenda is just more profit for shareholders." READ MORE: 'Very angry, what's next?': Bendigo Bank to shutter services across regional Australia Australia's biggest bank has cut jobs in its customer call centres in favour of an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot that will answer customer inquiries. A total of 90 jobs were axed at the Commonwealth Bank, including 45 roles in direct banking, due to the introduction of a new voice bot system on the bank's inbound customer enquiries line. A Commonwealth Bank spokesperson confirmed the job losses to ACM, the publisher of this masthead. "Our investment in technology, including AI, is making it easier and faster for customers to get help, especially in our call centres," the spokesperson said. "By automating simple queries, our teams can focus on more complex customer queries that need empathy and experience." The CBA spokesperson said the priority was to "explore opportunities for redeployment" for affected staff and to support employees with "care, dignity and respect". Finance Sector Union national secretary Julia Angrisano criticised the job cuts, saying workers want a tech-savvy bank, but "they expect to be part of the change, not replaced by it". "Our members want to be trained and supported into better jobs that leverage AI," Ms Angrisano said. "Yet rather than invest in its people, the CBA is simply discarding Australians through ongoing redundancies and offshoring. "If this is what CEO Matt Comyn calls productivity, we're seriously concerned about his place at the national productivity roundtable. "His carefully curated commitment to policy reform in Australia just looks like hollow PR when acts like this expose that his real agenda is just more profit for shareholders." READ MORE: 'Very angry, what's next?': Bendigo Bank to shutter services across regional Australia
Sky News AU
29-07-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
Commonwealth Bank of Australia replaces jobs with artificial intelligence, sparking outrage from Finance Sector Union
Australia's largest company has come under fire once again after another round of job cuts, with the roles being culled set to be replaced by artificial intelligence. Commonwealth Bank of Australia is replacing 45 jobs in its call centre with AI, the Finance Sector Union said. These roles are being cut due to the introduction of a new voice bot system to deal with customer enquiries. Another 45 jobs will be offshored CBA India where the major bank is advertising for customer messaging roles, according to the union. It marks the first time a bank has informed the union its job cuts are due to AI. The FSU's national secretary Julia Angrisano said the job cuts had stirred outrage as concerns about AI replacing humans mount. 'Just when we think CBA can't sink any lower, they start cutting jobs because of AI on top of sneakily offshoring work to India,' Ms Angrisano said. 'Workers want a tech savvy bank, but they expect to be part of the change, not replaced by it. 'Our members want to be trained and supported into better jobs that leverage AI. Yet rather than invest in its people the CBA are simply discarding Australians through ongoing redundancies and offshoring.' She stressed the change would hurt Aussie customers who may receive a poorer service due to CBA's job cuts. 'There is a human cost to this. You can't just replace frontline jobs with a voice bot and expect the same service for customers,' Ms Angrisano said. 'Customers shouldn't expect to speak to someone in Australia anymore, or even someone with a voice box. 'CBA made $10 billion last year. It has no excuse for treating its workforce like this.' A CBA spokesperson said the bank's investment in AI was 'making it easier and faster for customers to get help, especially in our call centres'. 'By automating simple queries, our teams can focus on more complex customer queries that need empathy and experience,' a statement from the spokesperson read. 'Recognising that the work context is evolving, and based on individual situations, many of our people have taken up the upskilling and reskilling pathways made available for them to continue their careers at the bank and build capabilities for future opportunities.' They said the bank was 'exploring opportunities for redeployment' for employees impacted by the job cuts. The latest row between the FSU and CBA follows the union taking the major bank to the Fair Work Commission for allegedly breaching a contract by outsourcing hundreds of jobs to India. It also comes after the FSU demanded answers from CBA over the axing of 164 jobs from the bank's technology division. Just weeks after this, the FSU hit out over plans to axe 90 roles at CBA's subsidiary Bankwest.
7NEWS
18-07-2025
- Business
- 7NEWS
Union takes action against Commonwealth Bank for alleged ‘sham' redundancies
Action has been launched against the country's biggest bank over claims it carried out 'sham' redundancies in Australia to take advantage of cheap overseas labour. The Commonwealth Bank announced in June it was making 304 roles across its technology and retail departments redundant. But the Finance Sector Union argues the CBA breached the Enterprise Agreement when it was 'caught' advertising the same jobs at its Indian subsidiary in Bangalore, India. The union said 110 of the roles advertised to be based at CBA India had the same job title as those involved in the redundancies. 'By hiring for the same job, at their own Indian subsidiary, they're showing themselves to have breached the Enterprise Agreement and essentially lied to their workers,' FSU national secretary Julia Angrisano said. 'This is the very definition of bad faith.' According to Clause 36 of the EBA, redundancies can occur if work is no longer required, needs to be done at a different location which is not within a reasonable commuting distance, or if the role is restructured so that some or all of the duties of the position are split up between one or more other positions. 'Sham redundancy action' The union said its members had been left 'outraged' and is taking its claims to the Fair Work Commission. 'We do not believe that the redundancies outlined in these change processes are in fact genuine redundancies and that in doing so, CBA has breached the terms of the Agreement,' Angrisano said. 'These jobs are not required to be done in India, they're just moving the work there to take advantage of cheaper labour and further line their own pockets.' Angrisano said Australian taxpayers are 'paying for the sham redundancy action'. 'Bona fide redundancies are taxed concessionally in the hands of the workers. It is especially disgusting that the nation's richest company is also reducing the tax take as it makes the final payment to hundreds of Australians that we know are being sacked solely to have their work performed offshore,' Angrisano said The Commonwealth Bank said the FSU 'did not raise any concerns' about like-for-like job changes during formal consultation, and said there 'is no basis to their allegations'. 'Like many organisations, we regularly review how we are organised to deliver the best experiences and outcomes for our customers,' a bank spokesperson said. 'We have been transparent in communicating workforce shifts with our technology team over the last three years. 'This includes being explicit about roles which are declining and offering reskilling and upskilling opportunities to people in those roles.' The union savaged the CBA in March for slashing more than 150 jobs shortly after revealing a $2.6 billion quarterly profit.
Sky News AU
18-07-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
Commonwealth Bank of Australia taken to Fair Work Commission by Finance Sector Union for allegedly offshoring hundreds of jobs to its subsidiary CBA India
Australia's largest company has been taken to court for allegedly breaching a contract by outsourcing hundreds of local jobs to India. The Finance Sector Union said it has commenced action in the Fair Work Commission against Commonwealth Bank of Australia for allegedly breaching the CBA Enterprise Agreement. CBA has been accused of defying Clause 36 of the agreement which defines redundancy. Redundancy can occur, according to the clause, if the work is no longer required, the work is required to be done at a different location that is not within reasonable commuting distance or if the work is restructured so that the tasks are split up to other positions. The FSU said the bank informed the union on June 10 that 304 redundancies across technology and retail banking jobs were taking place, while it was recruiting for about 100 jobs for CBA India. About 110 of the jobs impacted by the redundancies had a job ad based in India with the same job title, the FSU says. These include positions such as senior software engineers, staff data engineer, staff software engineer, engineering manager, software engineer and senior data engineer. FSU national secretary Julia Angrisano tore into the major bank for its action and said it had caused "outrage" amongst its members. "By hiring for the same job, at their own Indian subsidiary, they're showing themselves to have breached the Enterprise Agreement and essentially lied to their workers," Ms Angrisano said in a statement. "This is the very definition of bad faith." She said the redundancies were "proof" the big banks have a preference for offshoring Australian jobs to boost their bottom lines. "These jobs are not required to be done in India; they're just moving the work there to take advantage of cheaper labour and further line their own pockets," Ms Angrisano said. 'All Australians are paying for the sham redundancy actions of the CBA. "Not only are Australian workers being unfairly and reasonably sacked but this is being subsidised by all taxpayers. Bona fide redundancies are taxed concessionally in the hands of the workers. "It is especially disgusting that the nation's richest company is also reducing the tax take as it makes the final payment to hundreds of Australians that we know are being sacked solely to have their work performed offshore.' A CBA spokesperson rejected the union's claims and said it had met with representatives to "assure them that there is no basis to their allegations". "During the formal consultation on recent workforce changes, the FSU did not raise any concerns with us about like-for-like job changes," the spokesperson said. The CBA spokesperson earlier on Friday said no dispute had been filed with the Fair Work Commission, however, she has since acknowledged the action has been lodged. The lastest row between the FSU and CBA follows the union attacking the bank for slashing more than 150 roles just days after revealing a $2.6 billion quarterly profit. It also comes after the FSU demanding answers from CBA over the axing of 164 jobs from the bank's technology division. Just weeks after this, the FSU hit out over plans to axe 90 roles at CBA's subsidiary Bankwest.
7NEWS
08-07-2025
- Business
- 7NEWS
Bendigo Bank to close 10 branches in Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania
Bendigo Bank will close 10 branches across three states, with the bank blaming 'evolving customer preferences' for its decision. Regional areas in Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania will be impacted the most, with branches closing from August 1. Locations include Bannockburn and Korumburra in Victoria, Malanda in Queensland and Queenstown in Tasmania. Bendigo Bank said the decision was made following 'a review of evolving customer preferences, a reduction in business activity and an increase in costs'. Closing branches was a last resort, chief executive officer and managing director Richard Fennell said. 'Bendigo Bank has more branches per customer than any other Australian bank. We operate the second-largest regional branch network and the third-largest branch network nationally,' he said. 'To preserve what makes our bank unique, we must balance our physical network presence with the need to continue investing in the changing preferences of our 2.7 million customers.' Bendigo Bank says it's 'exploring opportunities' to redeploy staff working at the affected branches. Finance Sector Union National Secretary Julia Angrisano said the closures were a slap in the face for people in regional communities, especially in areas where there are now no other bank branches. 'Three Victorian communities — Bannockburn, Korumburra Yarram, along with Malanda in Queensland, and Queenstown in Tasmania will lose the last of their local bank branches. Also impacted are regional branches in Kings Meadows (Launceston, Tasmania) and Tully (in Northern Queensland),' Angrisano said. 'This is an incredibly disturbing development and does not bode well for the future of Bendigo Bank's presence in regional Australia. 'For a bank which proudly has its regional centre hometown as part of its name, and is fondly known for its community branch network, this decision feels very 'big bank' for all the wrong reasons.' The Finance Sector Union has written to Fennell as well as local MPs of the impacted regional communities, in a bid to save the branches. 'The Finance Sector Union has also raised the issue of consumer and worker regulation of banking with new Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Daniel Mullino MP,' Angrisano said. 'It is critical that the federal government step in and protect bank workers and customers given the banks have proven themselves to be incapable of doing anything other than putting profits and shareholders first.' Bendigo Bank branches closing: Stream free on
