The Finance Sector Union (FSU) has uncovered a further disturbing case of wage theft at the Commonwealth Bank (CBA).
FSU National Secretary Julia Angrisano said the underpayment had been discovered during Enterprise Bargaining when the CBA included a clause in the proposed Agreement saying "(leave loading)… is for the loss of opportunity to work overtime during periods of annual leave and consequently Superannuation Contributions are not made on the payment."
"The CBA is unlawfully robbing its staff of superannuation payments and we believe they have been doing this for many years," Ms Angrisano said.
"We estimate that more than 10,000 CBA staff are affected by the latest underpayment with each of them losing $60 per person per year."
"The last time we caught the CBA underpaying bank workers in 2017 it cost the bank more than $53 million in backpay for affected staff," she said.
"That was for, among other things, failing to pay wages and superannuation to part time workers on extra hours worked and affected thousands of staff."
"This latest underpayment of superannuation will lead to a massive loss for workers when they retire because of the impact on superannuation earnings."
Ms Angrisano said the FSU had become aware of the latest instance of wage theft after the CBA released a version of the EA containing the leave loading clause as it pushed forward with a staff voting process which the union opposes.
"There remain a number of serious unresolved issues in this bargaining process and the FSU is calling on CBA staff to vote to reject this Agreement so negotiations can continue."
"The CBA can't be trusted to do the right thing and is trying to legitimise its illegal behaviour by pushing this agreement to a vote."
"This is a further example of deliberate and systematic wage theft by Australia's richest bank."
"It's an attack on all workers at CBA but particularly front-line workers who are mostly women and are the lowest paid workers at CBA."
Ms Angrisano said the FSU was briefing lawyers and unless the CBA responded by tomorrow, it will take action in the Federal Circuit Court on Friday.
