ANZ Bank charges staff $10 for sausage sizzle as ‘welcome back to the office’
ANZ Bank’s cost cutting drive means staff will have to stump up $10 for a sausage sizzle and ice cream on Wednesday.
ANZ Bank’s brutal round of cost-cutting has extended to charging staff $10 for a sausage sizzle on Wednesday lunchtime.
The lunchtime cook up comes as new chief executive Nuno Matos works through a cost-cutting plan that includes sacking 4,500 full time, or contractor staff, as part of a commitment to reduce its workforce by around 10 per cent.
“ANZ Catering welcomes you back to the office!” an office sign reportedly said.
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“Maximum 100 people. Get your tickets now to avoid missing out!”
ANZ’s sausage sizzle leak by a disgruntled staff member follows similar problems for the bank where a small minority of its workforce took to messaging platform Reddit in 2025 to anonymously ridicule the new CEO, rubbish senior management, slam the culture, and complain their bonuses will be cut.
The bank’s media team did not immediately reply to The Nightly’s request for comment about whether the plan to charge staff for a sausage sizzle, soft drink, and ice cream is part of its cost-cutting focus, or part of normal business for its catering team.
The media team has previously said the poisonous online forums of moaning staff don’t represent the majority view of its more than 40,000 employees that helped the bank report a $5.9 billion profit over the year to September 30, 2025.
Employment law experts have also warned the online rebels may be in breach of their work contracts.
“If I were an ANZ employee I would keep my grizzling to around the dinner table in the privacy of my own home,” said Sydney University Professor and employment lawyer Joelle Munton.
Regulatory problems, being sued by past CEO
The troubled bank is also being sued by its former chief executive Shayne Elliott after he was stripped of around $13.5 million in bonuses after the bank agreed to pay a record fine of $240 million to regulator ASIC for multiple compliance failures during his reign.
Other regulatory scandals on Mr Elliott’s watch included the lender admitting to manipulating a key inter-bank lending rate known as Bank Bill Swap Rates or BBSW.
The fallout from the BBSW scandal resulted in former ANZ trader Etienne Alexiou brining a case for wrongful dismissal against the bank in the Federal Court, with Justice Nye Perram due to hand down his verdict within months.
