Westpac Banking Corporation is poised to axe more than 400 jobs and send up to 150 more offshore in the latest round of job cuts at the big banks.
Australia’s second biggest bank on Thursday briefed workers about the 410 job cuts and positions it will relocate to India as part of a group-wide restructure.
Westpac spokesman Paul Marriage told AAP that around 560 back office support and IT roles across several business units would be affected.
“But at the end of the day, we expect about 300 to 400 people will … lose their jobs because we’re still growing in some parts of the bank,” he said.
“We expect to be able to redeploy about a third of the people that have been affected by these announcements if there’s a right role for them and if they want to pursue that role.”
Another 100 jobs will be outsourced to third-party providers, with some being shifted offshore to Westpac’s partners, IBM and Genpact, in Bangalore.
The Finance Sector Union (FSU) said Westpac indicated 150 positions would be moved to Bangalore, India, and it feared more cuts were on the cards.
There will be a decline in the bank’s overall standard of customer service, FSU national secretary Leon Carter said.
“They’re saying this will be the most significant announcement they’ll make this year but there’s no guarantee that it’s the last one,” Mr Carter told AAP.
“Westpac continues to make a multi-billion-dollar profit and has the capacity, and we say the obligation, to invest in and protect Australian jobs not continue to sacrifice them on the alter of profit.”
Mr Marriage attributed the job cuts to a “much slower” banking growth than in previous years, driven by slower mortgage and business lending that has been a drag on the sector for three years.
Westpac’s announcement focused on the retail banking area in Australia, but job cuts in the Institutional Banking division have not been ruled out.
“We’re not talking about Institutional Banking roles primarily in what we’re announcing today,” Mr Marriage said.
The bank shifted 28 IT management roles in its wholly owned BT Financial Group and Westpac Institutional Bank to Bangalore in January.
Workers in India are usually paid between one-third and a half the wage of Australian workers in comparable jobs.
Westpac also is reviewing all business units excluding its New Zealand operations.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said that despite the job cuts at Westpac, Australia’s financial services sector had a bright future.
Ms Gillard said the growing middle class in China, India and other regional countries would ensure a strong future for financial services.
Westpac’s job cuts came amid cuts at other banks.
Earlier this week Suncorp Group said it would shift 77 jobs offshore to Bangalore, while ANZ Banking Group in January announced 131 employees in Victoria would lose their jobs.
Several hundred more jobs will be shed from the Melbourne-based lender in the next six months.
Westpac posted a 10 per cent jump in annual net profit to $6.99 billion in fiscal 2011, with salaries and other staff expenses up three per cent on a year earlier.
It also made 302 roles redundant through 10 restructures in 2011, according to FSU figures.
The bank’s total headcount was 37,712 according to its annual results announcement, a drop of 767 on a year earlier.
