ANZ employees have overwhelmingly rejected an enterprise agreement that would have given the bank considerably more employment flexibility, but that the union claimed would erode job security.

After a week-long vote, the Election Commission confirmed today that 64.48 per cent of participating employees voted against the proposal.

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The loss came on the same day that ANZ announced a new chief executive for Australia following the departure of current CEO Philip Chronican.

The bank’s failure to persuade its employees to support the enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) came after negotiations with the Financial Sector Union (FSU) broke down last year. Since then the FSU has campaigned fiercely against the proposed EBA.

The defeated proposal would have changed the definition of ‘ordinary working hours’ and introduced ‘flexi part-time employment’. It would also have changed the conditions for claiming redundancy.

FSU national secretary Fiona Jordan said: “As staff have clearly rejected the bank’s proposal, the FSU will now invite ANZ Bank to come back to the bargaining table to negotiate a new Enterprise Agreement in terms that can be recommended to staff in a new ballot.

“In conversations between thousands of ANZ staff in recent weeks it has been made abundantly clear that they do want a new agreement but that EBA can’t be based on clawbacks and inequity,” said Ms Jordan.

She said new agreement would need to be based on “sharing the success of ANZ through improving conditions, protecting redundancy provisions and protecting penalty rates.”

“The new EBA should also protect jobs not threaten them and should provide for the Fair Work Commission to settle workplace disputes and problems,” said Fiona Jordan.

Mark Whelan will take over the role of chief executive for Australia, with Mike Smith retaining the overall CEO position, overseeing both the Australian and New Zealand businesses.