Latest news with #offshoring
News.com.au
29-07-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
CBA sacks workers, replaces them with AI
One of Australia's major banks has come under fire after it announced the axing of 90 jobs from various frontline departments of the business. The Commonwealth Bank is 'replacing skilled Australian workers with AI systems as well as cheaper offshore labour', according to the Australian Finance Sector Union (FSU). But the bank said AI can make it 'easier and faster for customers to get help'. In a media release published on Tuesday, the FSU said the targeted job cuts would impact roles in Direct Banking and Customer Messaging roles which, it says, are characterised in large part by their reliance on human-to-human interaction. 'Workers affected by new technology should be retrained and supported into new roles, not discarded in the name of cost-cutting,' a union spokesman said. 'The union supports the use of new technology and AI in banking but says it must be done in partnership with workers, not at their expense.' FSU National Secretary Julia Angrisano gave a scathing review of CBA's decision on Monday, saying there was 'no excuse for treating its workforce like this'. 'Just when we think CBA can't sink any lower, they start cutting jobs because of AI on top of sneakily offshoring work back 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 said. 'There is a human cost to this. You can't justreplace frontline jobs with a voice bot and expect the same service for customers.' The row between the FSU and CBA is just the latest in a spate of strongly-worded exchanges over AI and overseas-related job cuts, which have been ongoing since March. A CBA spokesman told NewsWire that CBA hired more than 9,000 people in the 2025 financial year and were currently investing more than $2 billion in their operations. 'To meet the changing needs of our customers, like many organisations, we review the skills we need and how we're organised to deliver the best customer experiences and outcomes,' the spokesman said. 'Our investment in technology, including AI, is 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. 'We currently have around 450 open roles across retail banking services, more than 220 on the frontline.' It was widely reported in March that 164 jobs were cut from CBA's technology division, most of which were concentrated in Sydney. At the time, CBA said 'some roles and work can change'. 'Our focus is on providing our growing team with the right skills for evolving work,' a CBA spokesman said. 'Our priority is always to redeploy or re-skill for a new role or opportunity wherever possible.' According to the World Economic Forum, Artificial Intelligence is expected to create roughly 69 million jobs in the next five years, but around 83 million will be eradicated.
Yahoo
29-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Australian lender CBA to cut 45 jobs in AI shift, draws union backlash
(Reuters) -Commonwealth Bank of Australia confirmed on Tuesday it is cutting 45 jobs as part of a shift toward using artificial intelligence to handle certain tasks, prompting a union to accuse the bank of excluding workers from the evolving economy. CBA, the country's biggest lender, said it is currently investing more than A$2 billion ($1.30 billion) in its operations, including frontline teams and technology services, due to which "some roles and work can change". Australia's Finance Sector Union (FSU) has accused CBA of axing frontline roles in favour of automation and offshoring. In a statement, the union claimed that a total of 90 roles were being eliminated, including 45 positions in the bank's direct banking system. According to the FSU, these jobs were cut following the introduction of a new voice bot system on the bank's inbound customer enquiries line in June. "We're also proactively creating new roles to support career growth and help our people transition into future-fit opportunities," CBA said. The bank said it is consulting on the affected roles and looking at other internal jobs and reskilling opportunities for its people, while it denied offshoring jobs as per the FSU's claim. ($1 = 1.5328 Australian dollars)
Reuters
29-07-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Australian lender CBA to cut 45 jobs in AI shift, draws union backlash
July 29 (Reuters) - Commonwealth Bank of Australia ( opens new tab confirmed on Tuesday it is cutting 45 jobs as part of a shift toward using artificial intelligence to handle certain tasks, prompting a union to accuse the bank of excluding workers from the evolving economy. CBA, the country's biggest lender, said it is currently investing more than A$2 billion ($1.30 billion) in its operations, including frontline teams and technology services, due to which "some roles and work can change". Australia's Finance Sector Union (FSU) has accused CBA of axing frontline roles in favour of automation and offshoring. In a statement, the union claimed that a total of 90 roles were being eliminated, including 45 positions in the bank's direct banking system. According to the FSU, these jobs were cut following the introduction of a new voice bot system on the bank's inbound customer enquiries line in June. "We're also proactively creating new roles to support career growth and help our people transition into future-fit opportunities," CBA said. The bank said it is consulting on the affected roles and looking at other internal jobs and reskilling opportunities for its people, while it denied offshoring jobs as per the FSU's claim. ($1 = 1.5328 Australian dollars)
News.com.au
29-07-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Aussie workers shafted by major company in favour of AI
One of Australia's major banks has come under fire after it announced the axing of 90 jobs from various frontline departments of the business. The Commonwealth Bank is 'replacing skilled Australian workers with AI systems as well as cheaper offshore labour', according to the Australian Finance Sector Union (FSU). But the bank said AI can make it 'easier and faster for customers to get help'. In a media release published on Tuesday, the FSU said the targeted job cuts would impact roles in Direct Banking and Customer Messaging roles which, it says, are characterised in large part by their reliance on human-to-human interaction. 'Workers affected by new technology should be retrained and supported into new roles, not discarded in the name of cost-cutting,' a union spokesman said. 'The union supports the use of new technology and AI in banking but says it must be done in partnership with workers, not at their expense.' FSU National Secretary Julia Angrisano gave a scathing review of CBA's decision on Monday, saying there was 'no excuse for treating its workforce like this'. 'Just when we think CBA can't sink any lower, they start cutting jobs because of AI on top of sneakily offshoring work back 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 said. 'There is a human cost to this. You can't justreplace frontline jobs with a voice bot and expect the same service for customers.' The row between the FSU and CBA is just the latest in a spate of strongly-worded exchanges over AI and overseas-related job cuts, which have been ongoing since March. A CBA spokesman told NewsWire that CBA hired more than 9,000 people in the 2025 financial year and were currently investing more than $2 billion in their operations. 'To meet the changing needs of our customers, like many organisations, we review the skills we need and how we're organised to deliver the best customer experiences and outcomes,' the spokesman said. 'Our investment in technology, including AI, is 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. 'We currently have around 450 open roles across retail banking services, more than 220 on the frontline.' It was widely reported in March that 164 jobs were cut from CBA's technology division, most of which were concentrated in Sydney. At the time, CBA said 'some roles and work can change'. 'Our focus is on providing our growing team with the right skills for evolving work,' a CBA spokesman said. 'Our priority is always to redeploy or re-skill for a new role or opportunity wherever possible.' According to the World Economic Forum, Artificial Intelligence is expected to create roughly 69 million jobs in the next five years, but around 83 million will be eradicated.
Daily Mail
18-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Commonwealth Bank sends jobs to India as it cuts hundreds of workers in Australia
Australia's biggest bank has sent 100 jobs to India after retrenching hundreds of local staff with a union accusing it of offshoring work for cheaper labour. The Commonwealth Bank last month told the Finance Sector Union that 304 Australians would be made redundant in technology and retail roles. This occurred as 110 jobs, affected by redundancies in Australia, were created at the Commonwealth Bank's Bangalore-based subsidiary, CBA India. These new jobs in India included job titles that had existed in Australia including staff data engineer, senior software engineers, staff software engineer, engineering manager, software engineer and senior data engineer. The Commonwealth Bank, Australia's biggest home lender, has more than doubled the number of staff in India in just two years. The Finance Sector Union's national secretary Julia Angrisano said the Commonwealth Bank had breached faith with its own staff by saying positions were redundant in Australia only to recreate them in India. '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,' she said. 'This is the very definition of bad faith. We have known for years that big banks have had a preference for work to be performed offshore. 'Yet we now have the proof that this is happening in real time. 'Our members are outraged by this kind of behaviour and seriously question CBA's commitment to Australian jobs.' The Commonwealth Bank's number of staff in India more than doubled in two years, growing from 2,854 employees in June 2022 to 5,630 by June 2024, its annual report said. Ms Angrisano argued this was about CBA benefiting from cheaper labour in India. '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,' she 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.' But a Commonwealth Bank spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia that CBA India was insourcing roles that had previously been done by a third party. 'During the formal consultation on recent workforce changes, the FSU did not raise any concerns with us about like-for-like job changes,' she said. 'We refute their claims and have met with the union this week to respond in detail and assure them that there is no basis to their allegations.' The Commonwealth Bank's chief executive Matt Comyn was last year paid $8.977million with bonuses. Specialist recruiter and career coach Tammie Ballis took aim at the big four bank for sending roles offshore. 'Are you telling me, Australia being the multicultural country that we are that they can't find someone that's living here that is bilingual with those skills?,' Ms Ballis said. 'Come on, not only that, if you have a look down here, this is their acknowledgement to country. Paying respect to our First Nations Australians. You're not for Australians.' During Question Time in Parliament, Senator Gerard Rennick of the Liberal National Party of Queensland pressed the Treasury on whether the government was aware of how much money is being sent offshore in wages. A senior Treasury official said they didn't have the answer right away and would get back to him later. 'It's not hard to see why Treasury took my question about the Free Trade Agreements with the Philippines and India on notice,' Senator Rennick said. 'It turns out that the Australian Government charges no taxes on wages paid by Australian companies to foreign workers in other countries who are effectively working remotely, taking Australian jobs. 'Not only are we losing jobs, we are losing the tax that those jobs would have paid while Australian corporations still get a tax deduction despite sending money offshore. 'This then means the remaining Australian workers have to pay higher taxes to make up the shortfall. This is selling Australia out plain and simple.' 'This is selling Australia out plain and simple. Furthermore, for those of you who think that working at home is a good thing be careful what you wish for. 'You might be replaced by a foreign worker.' He also pointed out that some workers are being brought in from other countries. 'For example, I've been told that there are people coming from the Philippines to build the transmission lines between Wagga and South Australia. 'Do we know how much money in remittances is getting sent offshore in terms of wages paid either for outsourcing or people coming onshore? Aussies unleashed about the increasing globalisation of the workforce. One said: 'Govt should make it illegal for big banks, those above a certain threshold/size, to offshore IT and call centre jobs, especially given their huge billion $ profits'. A second added: 'At the end of the day these companies are greedy af and don't care about the average Australian. It's why I will always choose family over work every chance I get bc they wouldn't care if I dropped dead over my desk.' A third said: 'I worked for Telstra and my job went to Philippines where wages were 1/4 of Australian. 'Lead to seven extra calls per complaint resolution and time factor extended from four days to 14 days.'
