TUC, bank executives meet over mass sack

Victor Ahiuma-Young
THE leadership of Trade Union Congress, TUC, yesterday began series of meetings with bank chief executives towards amicable resolution of impending industrial unrest in the sector following recent mass sack, with organised labour insisting that industrial action had not been ruled out over the matter.

The meeting which took place at the National Secretariat of the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions, ASSBIFI, Alausa, was also expected to explore ways of resolving issues such as payment of full benefits to disengaged workers in according to subsisting agreement in the industry..

The meeting, Vanguard gathered, was initiated by the TUC, had in attendance, representatives of chief executives of Afribank, Bank PHB, FinBank, Oceanic Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Wema Bank, Spring Bank, and FCMB.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the meeting, President-General of TUC, Mr Peter Esele, said the meeting sought to find a middle ground in resolving the issues affecting sacked workers in the industry and added that labour was prepared to dialogue with management to resolve a looming industrial crisis in the sector.

He, however,  maintained that where dialogue failed to address the contending issues, labour  would be forced to explore several options available to it including shutting down the entire industry, and noted that the meeting was the first of a series of meetings between labour and management of banks before labour would finally take a action on the anti-labour practices of banks.

Esele blamed the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, for the ongoing crisis in the industry, saying reforms initiated by the Governor of the CBN and the process of disengagement of workers in the industry remained questionable.