Banks agree to halt mass sack, as labour gives 21 day ultimatum

Bank workers can now heave a sigh of relief, as Deposit Money Banks, under the aegis of Bankers Committee have agreed to halt further mass sack in the industry. The decision was announced at the end of the 327^th Bankers Committee meeting in Abuja, yesterday.

This is coming on then heels of threat by organised Labour to cripple operations in the banking sector over ongoing mass retrenchment of workers. The union has thus thrown its weight behind the threat  by the Federal Government through the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, to withdraw the licenses of banks that breached its directive to halt further retrenchment.

Labour yesterday issued a 21 day ultimatum to the affected banks to recall the sacked workers or risked unprecedented industrial action. At a joint briefing in Geneva, leaders of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, insisted that  they would picket banks who indulge in further mass sack of their employees, saying that the Federal Government was right to have warned the erring banks with withdrawal of their licenses if they refused to halt the gale of mass retrenchment of workers.

The affected banks that have sacked workers include Skye Bank (200), Diamond (200), Ecobank (1040), First Bank plans to lay off about 1,000 over a period.

Mrs. Tokunbo Martins, CBN Director of Banking Supervision, Mrs. Bola Adesola, Managing Director of Standard Chartered Bank, Mr. Philip Odozua, retiring Managing Director of UBA, Mr. Emeka Emuwa who is Managing Director of Union Bank and Mr. Isaac Okoroafor, Acting Director, Communications of the CBN, briefed the press on the outcome of the bankers committee meeting.

According to Mrs. Adesola banks in the country “are looking at ways to ensure that we minimize exits from our institutions, there will always be exits if there is fraud and so forth, people will exit institutions.

“It is something we have discussed in the past where the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor prevailed on the banks to minimize any exits from the institutions.”

The MD added that banks “understand the implication of people not being in employment so we noted the market sentiments and going forward it will be different but there will be reasons why people will exit not just in the banking industry but in telecoms and other industries. It is something that we will manage.”

The federal government has severally directed that banks halt the mass sack which the industry has witnessed in recent times and even threatened to withdraw licences of recalcitrant banks.