Commonwealth Bank of Australia canceled plans to reduce 45 support employees, who were previously going to replace the artificial intelligence (AI) system. The decision was revised after pressure from the trade union of the financial sector, who applied to the labor tribunal.
The bank stated that the introduction of a voice bot reduced the number of calls by about 2 thousand a week. However, the trade union insisted that the load, on the contrary, increased, and for its coverage the staff had to work overtime. As a result, the company recognized that the analysis was not carefully carried out and the dismissal of employees was unreasonable.
Workers who were planned to be reduced were offered to stay in their posts, consider other vacancies inside the bank or leave the company of their own choice. The leadership apologized for the situation and promised to revise internal procedures in order to avoid such mistakes in the future.
The Australian Trade Union called a revision of the decision by a major victory for employees. The organization also drew attention to the fact that the bank hired similar positions in India, which raised additional questions to the validity of the abbreviations in Australia.
