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Commonwealth Bank has been accused of “essentially calling it quits” on its West Australian subsidiary, following the revelation new workers would no longer be employed under the Bankwest entity.
The Financial Sector Union has also flagged CBA’s plans to combine the Bankwest enterprise agreement with the agreement covering the national workforce, which it warned would put the working conditions of 1400 staff at risk.
Bankwest branches are no more, and now new workers will be employed under the Commonwealth Bank entity.Credit: Peter Milne
It comes after CBA closed all Bankwest branches and ATMs in 2024, shifting the bank’s services to online-only.
That decision was made on the back of dwindling over-the-counter transactions, especially in the state’s regions, and saw the closure of 45 branches.
The FSU claimed CBA’s latest move undermined the principle that workers should be able to bargain collectively, with a real influence over the outcome.
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“CBA is essentially calling it quits on Bankwest by making this the end of Bankwest as an employing entity,” FSU national president Wendy Streets said.
“They want to disappear the Bankwest brand, but our members have worked hard to protect Bankwest’s unique culture and identity in WA.
“This move also sets up a situation where around 1400 workers could be forced to bargain alongside more than 33,000 Commonwealth Bank workers. That is not a level playing field.
“This is far from an internal tidy up, it’s about whether Bankwest workers retain a genuine, democratic say over their own enterprise agreement and their pay and conditions, or whether they are swallowed up into a much bigger workforce where their interests can be outvoted.”
CBA bought Bankwest in 2008 from the Bank of Scotland, which had bought it from the WA government in 1995 with plans to list 49 per cent of the shares on the ASX, before eventually buying those shares back in 2001.
The bank was founded in 1895 as the Agricultural Bank of WA, which primarily serviced farmers, and was later known as the Rural and Industries Bank – or R&I – from the 1940s until it changed its name to the Bank of Western Australia in 1994.
Commonwealth Bank has been approached for comment.
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