Recent media reports that finance sector jobs must be slashed in order to protect record finance industry profits have angered Australia’s finance sector workforce.

The Finance Sector Union said today, Australia’s finance industry, particularly the banking sector, has never been more profitable.

“Yet at the first murmuring of the possibility of economic slowdown we hear calls from self-interested analysts for jobs to be slashed. This short-term thinking needs to end,” said FSU National Secretary Leon Carter.

“It seems it is never enough to be profitable, the goal is to exponentially increase the return to the shareholder, increase the bonuses to inflated executive salaries, or be viewed as having failed.”

“This unfettered greed comes at a cost to the workforce and the community, and finance workers will tell anyone who listens how overworked they already are, how contact centres and branches are chronically understaffed, and how many of them are working thousands of hours of unpaid overtime every year.”

“As a worker, you don’t mind putting in a few extra hours to help keep the business afloat, particularly if the business you work for is struggling.
But we are not talking about a corner store that will go to the wall if things don’t turn around quickly; we’re not talking about businesses that are on struggle street. We are talking about some of the most profitable organisations in the country."

“To continue to call for job cuts at a time of such prosperity is quite frankly obscene, and should be rejected by the industry,” Mr Carter said.

This February, CBA announced a half-year net profit after tax of $3 billion. ANZ declared in May underlying profit of $2.8 billion - up 3 per cent on preceding half, up 23 per cent over corresponding period.