The Finance Sector Union of Australia (FSU) are pushing back against the Commonwealth Bank’s (CBA) refusal to stop using tracking apps to excessively monitor workers by tracking every keystroke, every conversation and even toilet breaks.
CBA requires staff to download an app to their personal phones which is used as a pass to enter the office and can track where they are, what they are doing and their work engagement levels.
The FSU has cited the experience of one employee who has reported their first-hand experience with the tracking app. “The bank's Navigate app allows the organisation to connect to any of my Bluetooth devices at home,” the employee said. “And it's essentially observing what you're doing. For example, have I got my TV running in the background? Am I playing music? What am I actually connected to?”
“At the same time, every time I step away from my computer, my Microsoft status changes to appear as 'away.'” The employee added that the Teams and Outlook applications on their phone are also constantly asking them about their location.
The Teams app used by CBA has also recently included the ability to record how much an employee has participated in a meeting, according to the employee.
The FSU says this level of intrusion is completely unjustified and is calling for explicit protections and clear parameters governing how artificial intelligence and other technologies can be used in the workplace, including for worker surveillance. The union argues that outdated laws give employers too much scope to use new technologies to monitor and micromanage workers. As a result, limiting workplace surveillance has become a major point of contention in negotiations for CBA’s new Enterprise Agreement, which covers around 35,000 employees.
FSU national secretary Julia Angrisano said that CBA had refused the union’s “commonsense requests” on surveillance, including more transparency over work data collection and retention during negotiations for its “overdue” EA. As well as calling for annual pay rises of 5% (or CPI if greater), improved consultation rights around AI, and a ban on offshoring the roles of agreement-covered employees, the FSU’s log of claims asks that CBA limit worker surveillance only to circumstances where it is necessary to ensure the safety of workers and the public.
Alongside their CBA Enterprise Agreement negotiations, the FSU are calling for transparency, voice and fairness in the adoption of AI across the whole banking sector, including calling for a pause on job losses due to AI, improved consultation, and the sharing of productivity gains with workers.
Looking to the impact of AI in the broader finance sector, the FSU report AI in the finance sector: The worker perspective V2, spotlights how AI is rapidly changing work across the finance sector and why workers must have a say. In creating the report, the FSU surveyed more than a thousand workers from across banking, insurance, superannuation, financial planning and other areas to understand how they feel about the increasing use of AAI in their workplaces. The survey found that 70% of workers felt that AI threatens their job security, with 50% reporting high or very high levels of workplace monitoring and surveillance.
You can learn more about the FSU’s campaign for a better way at CBA by reading their Beyond CBA's flawed sales pitch: Unlocking better workplace flexibility at CBA report and hear more about the health and safety impact of excessive workplace surveillance and the use of AI in the finance sector in our recordings of the 2025 VTHC HSR Conference – Reps against the Machine.
Read more: Worker surveillance – who's watching you and why? - Finance Sector Union