ANZ slashes another 248 jobs

ANZ Bank has axed a further 248 jobs across the country as part of its strategy to slash the size of its Australian workforce.

Yesterday afternoon staff at ANZ's mortgage fulfilment centres in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart were told their jobs would be outsourced.



The centres have been key to the bank's Given the Chance program, a partnership run with the Brotherhood of St Laurence to provide newly arrived refugees with work, raising concerns that several will lose their jobs.

Staff at the centres process documents and settle mortgages for thousands of customers who have financed a house purchase with the bank.

An ANZ spokeswoman said about 150 jobs would be outsourced to companies such as US-based Iron Horse, which specialises in processing such documents. A further 40 jobs will be moved to the bank's technology and operations centre in Bangalore.

The 45 staff working at the mortgage fulfilment office in Melbourne were told there would be "minimal" job losses as they would now have to settle mortgages from interstate.

A further 50 jobs will be created in Melbourne to cope with that increased workload, and some existing staff from interstate will be given the chance to relocate.

The Financial Services Union slammed the job losses.

"What we are seeing here is a very profitable bank in Australia that is failing its employees at a very difficult time, when they should be trying to provide some job security," union policy director Rod Masson said.

In December last year, ANZ announced that 800 middle-management jobs would be cut as part of its One ANZ restructuring program. In March this year the bank said almost 500 jobs had been relocated to Bangalore in the past year.

Since September 2008, the number of full-time Australian staff employed by ANZ has fallen from 20,364 to fewer than 19,700 — its lowest level since 2003. Since 2003, the number of full-time employees at ANZ's Bangalore outpost has increased from fewer than 400 to more than 3500.

According to a source at the bank, 10 people have been employed under the Given the Chance program in the past two years. Many of these now face the prospect of losing their job.

Mark Hawthorne | The Age
July 9, 2009