Westpac is requiring salaried employees earning up to $140,000 per year to complete timesheets. 

In an initiative aimed at preventing underpayments due to excessive working hours, the bank has informed its staff that time-keeping will be used for employees with salaries ranging from $90,000 to $140,000. 

These timesheets are designed to accurately record “actual hours worked” and ensure staff receive their “right entitlements”.

The Finance Sector Union (FSU) has responded to the plan, saying the time-keeping systems should address more than just underpayment issues. 

FSU National Secretary Julia Angrisano says job cuts in recent years have left the bank with insufficient staff, forcing remaining employees to work longer hours and take on additional responsibilities. 

Angrisano claims that many staff members have reported that working unreasonable additional hours and unpaid overtime has become the norm in various departments due to relentless job cuts.

The union has urged Westpac to ensure that the time-keeping systems are implemented in a manner that accurately identifies the excessive hours staff have been working and to collaborate with the union to address these issues. 

“We challenge Westpac to ensure time-keeping systems are implemented in a way that properly identifies the excessive hours staff have been forced to do and actively work with our union to address this,” Angrisano said.

The union secretary also warned that these systems should not add more pressure on staff who are already overworked and close to burnout. 

She criticised the culture within big banks that encourages high levels of unpaid work as a career development tool, calling it a systemic issue of deliberate understaffing to cut costs at the expense of workers.

“These excessive hours of work have a profound impact on the lives of our members, affecting their health, their relationships, the time available to spend with their families and their overall quality of life. Working hard should not be equated with working excessive, unreasonable, unpaid hours,” Angrisano stated.

The FSU says it recently started negotiations with Westpac for a new Enterprise Agreement, which it claims could be an opportunity for the bank to address the systemic understaffing issue in collaboration with the union.