Season of taking: Westpac under fire for ‘heartless’ pre-Christmas job cuts

“Heartless and disrespectful”: One of Australia’s largest banks has drawn union outrage for delivering an early Christmas blow to its frontline workers, axing 134 roles across 99 branches.

Westpac has been slammed for delivering a not-so-merry Christmas surprise to its frontline workers, axing more than a hundred branch jobs just weeks before the festive season.

The Finance Sector Union (FSU) has criticised the big four bank’s decision to cut 134 teller and personal banker positions across 99 branches nationwide, describing the move as “heartless and disrespectful”.

The union stressed that the decision will affect the bank’s employees across “every state”.

The move forms part of Westpac’s continued hardline approach to cost-cutting, following the bank’s announcement in May that over 1,500 employees would be let go to meet aggressive savings targets.

The FSU emphasised that the timing of the announcement was particularly callous, coming just weeks after Westpac agreed to “establish a $5 million capability fund” to help retail employees upskill for future roles.

Wendy Streets, the national president of the FSU, echoed these concerns, accusing the bank of “jumping the gun” and failing to uphold its promise to properly support the staff who have stood by customers through difficult years.

“Westpac is jumping the gun and cutting jobs less than two months from Christmas, when it should be developing its $5 million capability fund to support workers and provide better opportunities to those who are displaced,” Streets said.

“These are tellers and personal bankers who have stood by customers during a difficult few years, and they deserve respect, consultation and the time to make real decisions about their future, without being rushed out the door.”

In response to this decision, Streets stressed that Westpac must decide whether to halt the redundancies and honour its promise to invest in its people, or show that it’s prioritising profits over its employees.

“Westpac has a choice: it can pause these cuts and treat its people with fairness and decency and work with us to find solutions, or it can prove that it’s choosing the path of chaos and putting profits over people,” Streets said.

“Westpac has made a big show of promising to invest in its people by setting up a fund, yet now they’re cutting the very workers this fund was supposed to support.”

The union has also intensified its call for action, urging Westpac to “delay all cuts until after Christmas” and to “genuinely consult” with affected employees on a fair, transparent process that offers “redeployment or voluntary redundancy”.

Speaking to Yahoo Finance, a Westpac spokesperson said that as the bank invests in additional bankers, some roles and responsibilities may be adjusted due to reduced resource needs.

“While we continue to invest in extra bankers, other areas may need fewer resources,” the spokesperson said.

“This means from time to time we make changes that may impact some roles and responsibilities as we actively manage costs and investment. As the skills and capabilities required in banking continue to evolve, so will our workforce.”