Westpac Axes 200 Teller Jobs, Plans Staff Retraining Initiative

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Staff were told in an email on Tuesday that while teller roles are going, the bank will create 200 new positions in home lending and small business banking instead.

The move is part of Westpac’s “digital-first strategy”, which pushes more customers online — but the Finance Sector Union has blasted the decision, calling it “callous”.

“Westpac is asking loyal tellers to migrate customers to digital services that ultimately eliminate their own jobs. It’s callous and shortsighted,” said union national secretary Julia Angrisano.

Some tellers will be retrained as lenders, but not all. Retail banking boss Damien Macrae told staff that the bank had already started upskilling employees, with 33 workers stepping into home finance manager roles over the past year.

Westpac has also set up a $5 million “development fund” to help staff in this wave of cuts retrain.

Macrae framed the changes as about shifting priorities, not shrinking the workforce.

“Over the coming year we will appoint around 200 more lenders and bankers… At the same time, we will need around 200 fewer tellers and personal bankers,” he said.

The bank, which employs about 30,000 people, cut 1500 jobs in May but also hired 5000 people in the past year. It insists there will be no branch closures, pointing to its moratorium on shutting regional branches until 2027 and recent reopenings in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania.

But the union isn’t convinced.

“This is a test case for what employers should be doing. When roles are cut, workers must be re-skilled and redeployed – not discarded,” Angrisano said.

The shake-up comes amid a rough run for Australian bank staff. ANZ is axing 3500 jobs plus 1000 contractor roles, NAB is cutting 400 tech and enterprise jobs, and CBA has announced 164 job losses.

According to the Finance Sector Union, 7,885 banking jobs have been cut so far this year, a 70 per cent jump compared with 2024.

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