Worker sues CBA-owned start-up, claims it made him work 60-hour weeks
Commonwealth Bank-owned startup Unloan forced a former employee to work up to 60 hours a week, perform multiple roles, and then made him redundant after he complained to human resources, the staffer alleges.
According to an application lodged with the Federal Court this week, Luke Marraffa-Ives worked at Unloan between May last year and March this year, following stints with Westpac and National Australia Bank. Unloan provides digital mortgages, and is part of CBA’s venture capital business x15Ventures.
While his contract stated that he was required to work 38 hours a week, Mr Marraffa-Ives, 42, claims that, due to the wide scope of his role, he was required to work seven days and often clocked up to 60 hours a week. He alleges that CBA broke Fair Work rules by taking adverse action against him following a complaint about the expanding scope of his work.
Most seriously, Mr Marraffa-Ives says he questioned Unloan’s “capacity to maintain the stability of its core systems while delivering on the growth desired” by management. Less than a year later, Unloan chief executive Daniel Oertli made him redundant with only three days’ notice.
Unloan, which was launched in May last year, is one of CBA’s key growth bets.
Boasting a 10-minute application time and some of the sharpest interest rates on the market, CBA said last week that Unloan’s performance was key to its retail banking division funding $149 billion of new home loans in the 2023 financial year.
An Unloan spokesman said: “We are aware of Mr Marraffa-Ives’ case and will be defending his allegations, which we dispute. However, given the lodgement of this matter in the Federal Court, it is not appropriate for us to comment further at this stage.”
Mr Marraffa-Ives alleges
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