Major bank ANZ has announced about 3,500 jobs will go by next September.
It comes as the company reveals a broader restructure, which includes reducing “engagements with consultants and other third parties”.
In a statement on Tuesday morning, ANZ flagged a reduction in “duplication and internal complexity” as part of the changes, and said there would be limited impact on frontline, customer-facing roles.
“We know this will be difficult news for some of our staff,” chief executive Nuno Matos said.
“While some of these changes have already commenced, we are committed to working through the impacts as quickly and safely as we can, with both care and respect for our teams affected.”
Mr Matos said the reduction in consultant and third party contracts would affect about 1,000 managed services contractors.
Finance Sector Union (FSU) president Wendy Streets said ANZ was “betraying” workers to “chase even bigger profits”.
“This is out of control — it’s not strategy, it’s unhinged,” Ms Streets said in a scathing statement.
“When the FSU asked ANZ who will actually do the work of the 3,500 sacked staff, the bank had no answer, except to say the work will simply stop.
“That’s not a plan, that’s chaos.”
Further update on restructure due next month
The restructure has come amid an ongoing review of the bank’s operations, after the new chief executive joined in May.
“We are operating in a rapidly evolving and highly competitive banking environment,” Mr Matos said in a statement.
“As we continue our strategic review, we are eliminating duplication and complexity, stopping work that doesn’t support our priorities and sharpening our focus on improving our non-financial risk management practices across the bank.”
The bank said it would provide a strategy update to investors on October 13.
ANZ CEO says automated redundancy email was ‘indefensible’
ANZ will book restructuring charges of around $560 million, before tax, with the final details of the costs to be included in its financial results in early November.
In recent weeks, the ANZ boss issued an apology for automated redundancy emails sent to staff, which he described as “indefensible and deeply disappointing”.
Some retail banking staff facing job cuts received an email in August, telling them of their redundancies before they were officially informed.
The emails had been sent by mistake, an ANZ spokesperson said at the time, and redundancy meetings were made quickly.