Commonwealth Bank, Westpac called out over change that 'should be illegal'

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A recruitment expert has slammed Commonwealth Bank , claiming it was 'not for Australians' after it listed 132 jobs for people living in India - as a politician exposes a little-known problem with the bank sending jobs offshore.

Specialist recruiter and career coach Tammie Ballis took aim at the big four bank for sending roles offshore.

'I've had enough of Australian companies pretending to support our country when they offshore jobs,' she said.

Ms Ballis pointed out that the bank had 244 job openings in Australia, while 132 positions were advertised for candidates in India.

'Buckle up, I'm about to rip into the Commonwealth Bank. See this, this is how many jobs they're advertising for at the moment. See anything suss?,' Ms Ballis said.

'They're looking for 132 jobs in India. That's more than half of the jobs they're looking for in Australia.'

Ms Ballis why the bank was hiring so many roles in India there, especially given it has no physical presence in the country.

She argued the jobs being advertised in India, which included platform engineers and software engineers, could easily be filled by qualified Australians.

'Are you telling me, Australia being the multicultural country that we are that they can't find someone that's living here that is bilingual with those skills?,' Ms Ballis said.

'Come on, not only that, if you have a look down here, this is their acknowledgement to country. Paying respect to our First Nations Australians. You're not for Australians.'

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) employs over 5,600 staff in India, out of a total workforce of 48,900. Most of these employees are based in Bangalore, where CBA India supports the bank’s technology, business, and institutional banking operations.

There are growing concerns that more jobs may shift to India, as the bank explores a new lease agreement that could enable it to expand its Indian workforce to 10,000 in the future.

This follows similar criticism directed at Westpac, after it was revealed the bank had offshored 160 jobs to the Philippines.

During Question Time in Parliament, Senator Gerard Rennick of the Liberal National Party of Queensland pressed the Treasury on whether the government was aware of how much money is being sent offshore in wages.

A senior Treasury official said they didn’t have the answer right away and would get back to him later.

' It’s not hard to see why Treasury took my question about the Free Trade Agreements with the Philippines and India on notice,' Senator Rennick said.

'It turns out that the Australian Government charges no taxes on wages paid by Australian companies to foreign workers in other countries who are effectively working remotely, taking Australian jobs.

'Not only are we losing jobs, we are losing the tax that those jobs would have paid while Australian corporations still get a tax deduction despite sending money offshore.

'This then means the remaining Australian workers have to pay higher taxes to make up the shortfall. This is selling Australia out plain and simple.'

'This is selling Australia out plain and simple. Furthermore, for those of you who think that working at home is a good thing be careful what you wish for.

'You might be replaced by a foreign worker.'

He also pointed out that some workers are being brought in from other countries.

'For example, I've been told that there are people coming from the Philippines to build the transmission lines between Wagga and South Australia.

'Do we know how much money in remittances is getting sent offshore in terms of wages paid either for outsourcing or people coming onshore?

Aussies unleashed about the increasing globalisation of the workforce.

One said: 'Govt should make it illegal for big banks, those above a certain threshold/size, to offshore IT and call centre jobs, especially given their huge billion $ profits'.

A second added: 'At the end of the day these companies are greedy af and don’t care about the average Australian. It’s why I will always choose family over work every chance I get bc they wouldn’t care if I dropped dead over my desk.'

A third said:  'I worked for Telstra and my job went to Philippines where wages were 1/4 of Australian.

'Lead to seven extra calls per complaint resolution and time factor extended from four days to 14 days.'

Commonwealth Bank has been contacted for comment.

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