The Finance Union Sector (FSU) has criticised AMP’s decision to move 20 jobs offshore, calling it a “terrible outcome” for the company’s workers.
According to the union, AMP admitted the offshoring move was a result of it seeking cheaper labour costs. Impacted jobs include 10 customer service roles and six specialist home loan roles.
The Australian financial services giant said that affected workers could apply for five new roles within the company, the FSU confirmed.
An AMP spokesperson told Money Management the changes were “essential” as it enters the final year of its business simplification program.
“These changes, though difficult, are essential as we simplify AMP’s business and ensure we are best placed to continue to deliver competitive products and services for our customers. We are supporting our impacted employees through redundancy packages and resources to help them find new opportunities. We are grateful for their contribution to AMP,” the spokesperson said.
“AMP’s redundancy benefits are significantly more generous than those set out in the applicable industry award.”
Some $60 million has been spent on the business simplification in FY24 and the total costs are expected to be $150 million by the project’s completion.
Nicole McPherson, FSU national assistant secretary, described the changes as a “terrible outcome” for AMP workers and their families, as well as AMP customers.
“These roles are in customer service as well as help AMP customers with their home loan. Once these jobs go offshore, when AMP customers call for assistance, they won’t be speaking to someone in Australia,” she said.
“AMP needs to explain to its workers and customers why a company that can post hundreds of millions in profit can outsource and move 20 jobs offshore in the same week.”
On 14 February, AMP reported a 15 per cent increase in its underlying net profit after tax (NPAT) from $205 million in the previous year to $236 million for the 2024 full-year period.
However, its statutory NPAT was down by 43 per cent from $265 million in FY23 – which had been boosted by gains from the sales of AMP Capital and SuperConcepts – to $150 million. The lower figure for FY24 reflected business simplification costs and the sale of its advice division in December 2024 as the company transformed itself.
In conversation with Money Management following the results, AMP CEO Alexis George said the company is now “living and breathing organic growth” after a period of divestments.
The financial advice profession is no stranger to offshoring, with many firms seeing it as a key strategy to optimise their business and gain greater efficiencies. For example, national advice firm Invest Blue harnesses outsourced services through Philippine-Australian company Vital Business Partner (VBP).
In 2022, Diverger partnered with Atlas Outsourcing to provide virtual administration and paraplanning services to its client network through a network of staff in the Philippines. Meanwhile, Sequoia acquired a national paraplanning service Clique Paraplanning last year to provide outsourced paraplanning services to financial planners and AFSLs.
Moreover, the FSU called attention to AMP’s enterprise agreement (EA) that expired last year, saying that the firm has failed to enter into negotiations for a new agreement. The union is campaigning with AMP staff to bargain for a new EA, it said.
“Without an enterprise agreement, AMP’s non-executive workforce does not have the ability to negotiate their own pay and conditions. Staff working conditions could continue to deteriorate without the protection of an enterprise agreement,” McPherson said.
The FSU national assistant secretary said there is nothing stopping AMP from “continuing to strip down workers’ conditions”.
“AMP’s CEO boasts of their commitment to ‘simplification and cost reduction’ which in the absence of employee protections is ominous for its workers. We have serious concerns for what they will strip away next,” she said.
Last October, it was revealed that nearly 30 staff at AMP could be affected by changes to its marketing and communications team.
Responding at the time, the FSU said: “With an expired enterprise agreement, and a management at AMP who has refused to negotiate a new one, staff have very limited protections. They’re entitled to only the bare minimum redundancy and other conditions.”
