Commonwealth Bank financial planner sues for $172,000 over working from home arrangement

The Commonwealth Bank is being sued by a scorned financial planner after he argued his permanent work-from-home order would disrupt his home life and cause strain on his family.

The financial planner, from Newcastle in the Hunter Region of NSW, filed an action in Federal Circuit Court last week after the Commonwealth Bank avoided paying him 20 years of redundancy rights when he refused to accept the offer of remote work at December 2021.

When the bank closed its retail finance planning business, it offered the man, who was making $134,000 a year plus bonuses, a job at the new owner, AIA insurance company.

He initially accepted the job because he felt he had no choice and because the bank said he would not receive severance pay if he turned down the offer.

But then she withdrew her acceptance of the job because she said she needed to work from an office and couldn’t work from home because it interfered with her private life.

The man is seeking a severance package of $172,000, payment of interest and civil penalties from the bank.

“As part of the sale of our financial planning business, the person in question was offered a comparable role as financial planner under the new owners, but did not take up the role,” a Commonwealth Bank spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.

The man told the bank, including in an email to CEO Matt Comyn, that the new job was worse than the one he had, as it provided no office space.

According to the planner’s statement of claim to the Federal Circuit Court, AIA said it would look for office space in Newcastle, but then offered him equipment so he could work from home.

Under his agreement with CBA, if his job transfer offer had less favorable terms than his original job, he was entitled to severance pay.

He said AIA’s job was worse because he had owned an office for 20 years and the transfer was “an intrusion into his private home and life to which he did not consent” as well as an intrusion into his family’s life, he Australian Financial Review informed.

“Not attending a job site away from home can create tensions with other family members,” the planner said in his complaint.

The man also said that working from home was isolating him and could have “adverse health implications” for him.

He said his home was not suitable for full-time home work as there was “not enough space to incorporate a permanent, private home office.”

The man also said that working from home 100 percent of the time would not allow him to meet the confidentiality and privacy standards of the financial services industry.

Working from home would also mean fewer opportunities to earn a bonus and limit him to clients 55 and younger when most of his previous clients were retirees, he said.

The Commonwealth Bank said it believed it had met its obligations to find a comparable role and therefore redundancy payments were not payable in its case.

However, the bank’s human resources chief, Sian Lewis, said last week that he was opposed to roles that were 100 per cent work-from-home.

Commonwealth Bank management ‘does not believe there is any function that can be performed completely remotely’ he told the Australian Financial Review.

When the Commonwealth Bank (Sydney head office pictured) closed down its retail finance planning business, it offered the man a job in the transfer service at AIA insurer.

“We’ve done work that says if you’re not in the office more than a couple of days a week, the number of people you collaborate with within a particular time period drops by about a third.”

But the financial planner’s court case may now force the bank to advocate permanent remote work, to avoid paying for a layoff.

“Since he has now filed legal proceedings, which we intend to contest, we are unable to comment further at this time,” the CBA spokesman said.