Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) is in the news this week for more than this morning’s $6 billion share buyback announcement.
In a less fortuitous turn of events, CBA group governance executive general manager Kara Nicholls is suing the bank.
Why is CBA facing a lawsuit?
According to Nicholls, CBA’s governance team has long been understaffed and overworked which has led to an excessively high turnover rate in the department.
Nicholls says she sounded the alarm to her superiors on numerous occasions but little to no action was taken to rectify the situation.
Now she’s facing the loss of her job and is suing CBA, as the Australian Financial Review reports, for “allegedly seeking to fire her last week in response to ‘whistleblower’ complaints she made to senior officers and chairman Catherine Livingstone about the bank’s failure to respond to repeated warnings on understaffing and workers’ safety”.
The Federal Court claim alleges:
The [bank] acted with conscious and contumelious disregard of the rights and interests of Ms Nicholls, and of the rights and interests of employees in the group governance team, including by way of raising legitimate concerns as to workplace health, safety, culture and resources.
CBA’s spokesperson noted that the bank won’t be commenting on the matter as it’s currently before the Federal Court. They said the bank “takes any concerns raised by its current or former employees very seriously”.
How has CommBank been performing?
The new pending lawsuit aside, CBA shareholders have largely enjoyed a stellar 12 months.
CBA’s share price has gained 43% since this time last year, almost twice the 23% gains posted by the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) over that same time.
CBA has also maintained its dividend payments throughout the COVID-19 pandemic turmoil. At the current price of $106.56 per share, CBA pays a dividend yield of 2.39%, fully franked.
The post CBA (ASX:CBA) sued by whistleblowing governance manager appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.
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More reading
- CBA (ASX:CBA) share price on watch after FY21 results & $6bn buyback
- 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Wednesday
- The ASX reporting wrap-up: Challenger, Megaport, James Hardie
- Is now a good time to buy Bendigo and Adelaide Bank (ASX:BEN) shares?
- How did the CBA (ASX:CBA) share price respond last earnings season?
The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.
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