ANZ has issued an apology and offered psychological counselling to more than 100 senior bankers after they received an email sent in error instructing them to return their computers, ahead of the news that they were going to be fired.<\/p>\n
The Australian bank sent out the automated emails ahead of schedule on Wednesday. It held an online call with the staff later that day to confirm that those who had received them would be losing their jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, these emails indicate an exit date for some of our colleagues before we\u2019ve been able to share their outcome with them,\u201d said Bruce Rush, acting head of ANZ\u2019s retail division, in an email to staff seen by the Financial Times.<\/p>\n
\u201cI deeply regret the distress this situation may have caused. Please know that we are committed to treating every colleague with dignity and respect as we move through this process,\u201d said Rush.<\/p>\n
The mistake comes as former HSBC executive Nuno Matos, who took over as chief executive in May, is ringing the changes at the bank. He is expected to announce a strategic overhaul in October. ANZ\u2019s shares have risen 18 per cent so far this year to 33.69 Australian dollars.<\/p>\n
The bank has grappled with a series of scandals in recent years, including an investigation into alleged bond price rigging and bad behaviour on its trading floor.<\/p>\n
ANZ had been planning to tell staff about the job cuts next week. An ANZ spokesman said the bank had \u201capologised unconditionally to our staff impacted\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Financial Sector Union, which represents employees in the finance industry, said it had been contacted by members over the emails, which had caused \u201cpanic and distress\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a disgusting way for workers to learn about job cuts \u2013 through a botched email instead of a respectful conversation,\u201d said the union\u2019s national president Wendy Streets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese errors are the direct result of the chaotic pace of change being forced through by ANZ\u2019s new CEO,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Commonwealth Bank of Australia, ANZ\u2019s larger rival, was earlier this month forced to reverse a plan to sack 45 call centre workers it planned to replace with an AI chatbot.<\/p>\n
The bank struggled to cope with a rise in incoming calls and has since apologised to staff and offered to redeploy them. The FSU complained to the Fair Work Commission, Australia\u2019s employment tribunal, over the issue. \u2013 Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANZ has issued an apology and offered psychological counselling to more than 100 senior bankers after they received…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,18,19,17,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-28904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-work"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}