Since MLC Life Insurance merged with Resolution Life in October last year to create Acenda, the life insurer has shed nearly 300 roles across the business – and now, according to the Finance Sector Union, staff are being asked to accept an enterprise agreement that would see basic entitlements slashed.
The FSU said that, under the proposed agreement, less than half (47 per cent) of Acenda workers would be guaranteed a pay rise, many would lose rostered day off entitlements and work-from-home/hybrid work provisions would be removed.
New staff, the union added, would also “be worse off when it comes to long service leave and redundancy provisions.”
Per the FSU’s statement, the agreement follows the “brutal axing of 280 jobs at [Acenda] in the last 18 months” and reports that some staff haven’t received a pay rise in seven years.
Anonymous Acenda workers corroborated some of these concerns – one said they moved from Sydney to a regional town after being promised workplace flexibility and is now faced with the choice of “leaving my job or leaving a place where I have community.”
Another said they hadn’t received a pay rise in three years, and the fact that the new agreement won’t guarantee them one “makes me feel that Acenda doesn’t value my skills.”
FSU national secretary Julia Angrisano urged FSU members to reject the Acenda agreement, saying that Acenda was “once the industry leader in its flexible work arrangements and attracted staff from the regions with the promise that they could work from home.”
“Now those same staff are going to be forced to choose between arduous commutes or leaving the business,” she added.
“This will in turn make it harder to attract top talent and ultimately dilute outcomes for customers, many of whom turn to Acenda for help after the loss of a family member.”
Before reports of job cuts emerged in March, Acenda announced a spate of senior appointments across the business. These included Sean McCormack as chief commercial officer, John Lucey as chief investment officer, Gerard Kerr as chief growth officer, Dean Mulheron as chief product officer and Ross Miller as group chief people and culture officer.
At the time, Acenda group chief executive Chris de Bruin said that the refreshed leadership team “[reflects] our ongoing commitment to supporting our partners, their members, clients and lives insured.”
One of the most difficult insurance companies to do business with. It often feels like they don’t want the business. They put up barriers to make it hard to do business with them — whether it’s pricing, processes, or service. It was frustrating when they were MLC, and it’s even worse now.