Mediaboss Marketing

Westpac has confirmed plans to send 119 technology jobs overseas to cut costs.

A Westpac spokesman said staff working in the affected parts of the bank were told last week their jobs would go.

The decision to axe those roles, which supported IT development and systems maintenance, came after a review that started in November 2011.

Those affected would be offered retraining for redeployment into roles in other parts of the bank, if possible, or receive their full benefits and entitlements.

"We are committed to retaining our core highly skilled technology workforce in Australia," Westpac head of group media relations Paul Marriage said.

"But some IT roles can be more efficiently done by external specialists like IBM."

Mr Marriage said these 119 technology jobs, as well as seven positions in the collections area of the bank, was separate to Westpac's announcement in February of plans to cut more than 400 jobs and send up to another 150 offshore as part of a restructure.

Mr Marriage said Westpac had found 1500 new roles for staff in the past eight months as a result of internal changes.

The job cuts were first raised by the Finance Sector Union (FSU) on Tuesday morning, and national secretary Leon Carter said the decision was completely unjustified.

"The only reason they are losing their jobs is because our most profitable bank thinks it can now get the job done more cheaply offshore," Mr Carter said in a statement.

Excerpt from:
Union says Westpac to cut staff