* Asks  EFCC  to investigate

By Victor Ahiuma-Young

ORGANISED Labour in the nation’s Financial Sector has accused the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mallam Lamido Sanusi Lamido’s appointed management teams of the eight rescued banks, of reckless management of the banks.

EFCC

President of the Association of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions, ASSBIFI, Comrade Sunday Olusoji Salako, made this accusation last week Thursday in Lagos, calling on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to immediately begin an intensive investigation of the CBN appointed management teams.

While speaking on the new wave of retrenchment in the banking sector, Comrade Salako, alleged that most of the management teams appointed by the CBN had been wrecking the banks far worse than those removed by CBN in August 2009.

Lamenting their  recklessness of the  ASSBIFI President said: “Some of the appointed management teams would end up in Jail after their tenure. They are doing worse than the management teams that were removed by the CBN.

We are sure that EFFC will pick up a lot of them immediately they finish their assignments. We know a lot of things are being concealed now by the management. We can tell you that all is well. When they are through with their assignments and new management assume, their activities would be made public.

In term of ostentatious and extravagant life style, only very few have actually reduced. Many others are using the most expensive cars, claiming un-imaginable allowances and so on. All what they accused the former management of; they are doing worse than that.”

Meanwhile, the banking industry experienced another wave of  retrenchment with  no fewer than  400 bankers losing their jobs. This   brings the number of sacked banks’ staff to about 12,000 since the assumption of the current Governor of CBN in 2009.

In the new wave of sack, labour said that Intercontinental Bank Plc sacked 200 employees; Oceanic International Bank Plc, 100; and Unity Bank Plc, 36 staff. First Bank is also speculated to be warming up to implement another sack exercise which might see nothing less than 200 staff losing their jobs.

In response to the fresh wave of sack organised labour  last week called on the customers of Intercontinental, Oceanic and Unity banks to make adequate withdrawals between Friday and tomorrow, to avoid being caught up in the planned confrontation with the affected banks.

Giving details of the fresh retrenchment exercise, he called on banks that had dispatched letters of disengagement to members to reverse their action  immediately, while those that contemplated such unlawful and un-procedural action should shelve the idea because it would be an open invitation to the unions to embark on an unprecedented industrial action.

Comrade Salako warned that everything  needed to cripple the operations of the affected banks had been concluded and members of Labour and Civil Society Coalition, LASCO, would be actively involved, stressing that once the picketing commenced, labour will not leave the affected banks until all their demands are met.

He invited all the affected workers to come to ASSBIFI secretariat for documentation because; all the benefits of the affected workers must be paid by  the banks in accordance with    Subsisting Collective Bargaining Agreement, CBA.

According to Comrade Salako, the association had written to Ministers of Finance, Labour, Interior and other relevant agencies, but without response; noting to that the ultimatum to the affected banks expired Wednesday last week without the banks addressing Labour demands.

The ASSBIFI president lamented that the retrenchment of over 300 employees by Unity Bank was still pending since 2009, before this latest sack by the same bank.  “At this season of the year when humanity is exchanging fraternal, goodwill messages, Intercontinental Bank and Oceanic Bank International Plc are unleashing terror-like assaults on the rights of employees and welcoming them to this New Year with hopelessness.

“As at today, hundreds of our members are affected by the insensitive, cruel and arbitrary staff rationalization exercises being embarked upon by these banks while some others are warming up to follow in their nefarious steps.

“Specifically, the Unity Bank management distributed letters of disengagement of services to 36 of our members on December 16 and 17, 2010 while additional list of workers to be disengaged is being compiled. Meanwhile, this bank has not yet negotiated or pay what is required by law in  our Industry-wide Collective Agreement to the staff that were disengaged in December, 2009.

“Intercontinental and Oceanic Bank International Plc were authoritatively reported to have surreptitiously, unilaterally and in a sinister manner disengaged about 200 workers. It is poignant to note that these banks and others have institutionalized this anti-labour policy of rationalizing staff on a yearly basis like a ritual.

“It is, therefore, imperative to emphasise that the managements of these banks that are reputed for this policy should concretely check and evaluate themselves to determine the success or otherwise of this annual diversionary ritual. If staff rationalization has not helped their cause, then they should look elsewhere and formulate formidable strategies to achieve organizational goals and objectives.

“Pursuing the same strategy every year and expecting different result is a symptom of systemic failure on the part of the management. More worrisome is the fact that the new spate of rationalization exercise is being carried out in an undemocratic manner not known to us especially in the recent past.

“We, therefore, condemn this policy of perennial staff rationalisation as anti-labour and economically retrogressive since it would at the end, hurt the nation’s search for economic recovery. There is, therefore, need for concerted efforts by well-meaning Nigerians, the entire labour movement and progressive civil society to combat it and we are ready to start and lead this campaign with vigour.”

In his brief contribution, President of NUBIFIE, Comrade Ade Martin Odidie, advised the affected banks to enter into meaningful dialogue with organised labour to avert avoidable industrial unrest, saying “once the action commences, there will be no retreat, no surrender.”

It could be recalled that rationalising the December 2009 mass sack, Chief Executive Officer of Oceanic Bank Plc, Mr. John Aboh, had said: “We had to implement the painful process of rationalisation to streamline the workforce along the line of the current business realities otherwise we will be deploying depositors’ funds to sustain the bloated workforce.”

Mr. Aboh explained that the bank spent over N4 billion monthly on salaries and wages for its over 20, 000 staff, arguing that the staff strength in the bank was ‘bloated’.

Besides the sack, Oceanic Bank implemented ‘an across-the-board salary cut that further reduced operational costs. The details of the salary cut included 15-20 per cent for senior management and 22.5-35 per cent for executive directors and CEO.