Financial Sector Union (FSU) national secretary Julia Angrisano has slammed the National Australia Bank as being “breathtaking” in its hypocrisy, following reported admissions from the bank that its chief executive, Andrew Thorburn, had breached its policies inadvertently and been forgiven.
Reportedly, Thorburn breached the bank’s policies on a small number of occasions and been cleared of wrongdoing by the NAB Board.
Angrisano slammed this admission, saying that NAB would have “no hesitation” in throwing junior staffers making inadvertent breaches under the bus.
“The hypocrisy is breathtaking – it’s do as I say, not do as I do. The notion that the inadvertent breach is investigated by the board is extraordinary,” she said. “There is a pattern of hypocrisy emerging here, and it should be deeply worrying for investors.”
Last month, Thorburn told a Parliamentary Committee questioning why 1,200 NAB staff had been investigated for breached that “I don’t think there will be many in that group that will be very senior people, because it’s behaviour and you expect that, when people get to very senior levels, they know the code of conduct and they live by it”.
Contracting this belief from Thorburn, a senior executive tasked with overseeing NAB’s financial planning divisions left the bank with a payout of $796,000, following revelations of misconduct uncovered by the Royal Commission.
