Insurance manager secures belated bonus from Westpac

A court has ordered Westpac to pay a A$70,000 bonus and costs to a retrenched insurance sales manager working in the BT Financial division.

In August 2011, Westpac announced the merger of the Bancassurance Division with the superannuation, investment and advice teams to create a new team called "Bank Distribution", Judge Lloyd-Jones explained in a judgment of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia last week.

As a result, the position of Giulo Russo (senior manager sales insurance) and another position (national sales manager customer call centres/online) were combined into a single role.

BT made Russo redundant in October that year.

"Russo carried out his duties for a period in excess of ten months of the twelve month period of the relevant financial year," Lloyd-Jones wrote in the conclusion to his judgment.

"His employment was terminated on the ground of redundancy and Westpac has sought to apply [its] policies in order to determine his rights.

"The evidence before this Court demonstrates that those rights were not exercised properly in accordance with those policies, primarily through the acts of [the Head of the Bancassurance Division] carrying out relevant duties on behalf of Westpac.

"The contractual matrix provided that Russo's entitlements would be determined in accordance with [the bank's] policies and I am satisfied that this did not occur.

"Russo should receive a sum equal to the incentive payment paid the previous year and Westpac should be ordered to pay Russo's costs of these proceedings."

Westpac remains embroiled in a further series of Federal Court actions over staff  redundancies, many dating back to 2008 and 2009, amid allegations some of its senior staff acted in bad faith towards key St George Bank staff during and after Westpac's takeover. The claims and counter-claims are likely to be thoroughly tested in a Full Federal Court hearing, set down for November.