Commonwealth Bank under fire for ‘bullying’ staff over return to office demand, threatens bonus cuts

The nation’s biggest bank has been accused of bullying its staff in an all-staff email.

The Commonwealth Bank threatened staff with the loss of bonuses if they did not return to the office, as reported by The Australian.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: How Aussie bosses are keeping track of their remote workers.

CommBank ordered staff back to the office at least 50 per cent of the time last year, with the edict coming into effect earlier this year.

“While the majority of our people are meeting the expectation, we continue to see some patterns of attendance that are falling short,” CommBank said in the email.

“This email is to advise you that you have one or more team members who did not meet their connection expectation at least once between June and September 2024.”

CommBank warned staff their “office connection” would be reviewed every month for the next 12 months.

Employees will receive a warning if they do not attend the office, followed by a formal letter if they continue not to meet in-person requirements.

Finance Sector Union national secretary Julia Angrisano slammed the letter, accusing the bank of bullying staff.

“Despite lauding itself as the most technologically advanced bank, and spending billions on technology so that customers are increasingly being forced to self-service, the bank is demanding staff act as if technology and flexibility doesn’t exist,” Angrisano told The Australian.

“If this email is confirmation that face-to-face engagement is so important to the bank, we look forward to the CBA reopening the bank branches they took from customers.

“Linking performance outcomes to office attendance is punitive and pushing workers with threats reflects the very worst of big business as a bully and not the national icon the Commonwealth Bank likes to tell communities it still represents.

“Threatening workers with disciplinary action including a final formal written warning is outrageous.”

CommBank said it would “seek to understand” any individual situations impacting staff’s ability to attend their office in person.

The end of working from home?

The letter comes after Amazon staff were told to quit if they do not like new the company’s new five-day-in-office mandate.

Dell and Flight Centre have also recently confirmed their expectations that staff work from the office.

Dell Technologies confirmed its staff have been requested to spend more time in the office.

“We continually evolve our business so we’re set up to deliver the best innovation, value and service to our customers and partners,” a Dell spokesperson told 7NEWS.com.au.

“That includes more in-person connection to drive market leadership.”

Flight Centre also confirmed it had “communicated it a bit more widely internally recently” that staff should come into the office as much as possible.

“The nature of our business means we are predominantly a work-from-work business,” a Flight Centre spokesperson told 7NEWS.com.au.

“This is not new and it reflects the fact that most of our people — about 70 per cent — work in-store in customer-facing roles as travel agents or corporate travel managers.

“We also believe very strongly that it’s important culturally and operationally for our people to be part of a small team and to collaborate face-to-face with fellow team members and other colleagues in the office wherever possible.

“Accordingly, a policy is in place globally.

“There are provisions for flexible arrangements and for our people to work from home from time-to-time, subject to approval from their leaders.”

Tabcorp and the NSW Government also recently ordered staff back into the office.

Meanwhile accounting and auditing firm KPMG found 82 per cent of Australian chief executives favoured office roles being fully based in the office by 2027.