By Victor Ahiuma-Young
OVER 1500 retrenched workers of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, eased out of the bank between 2005 and 2008, have petitioned President Jonathan, imploring him to prevail on the management of the bank to pay them their required benefits as well as compensation for premature disengagement.

The disengaged staff argued that the premature termination of their appointment and non-payment of their required entitlements – exit package in full by Mr. B. B Ebong – led Management of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc had caused them and members of their families  untold hardship since then.

In a petition by  V.G. Adefisan and S.C.Nnabuchi, National Co-coordinator and Assistant Secretary titled “Save our souls: Appeal by victims of unlawful and unprocedural mass staff rationalisation by the management of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc (2005 – 2008), the retirees also copied Senate President, Speaker of the House , Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Minister of Labour and Productivity, Minister of Finance among others.

According to the petitioners, “Our grouse is that such premature termination of our appointment and non-payment of our required entitlements – exit package in full by Mr. B. B Ebong – led Management of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc has caused us untold hardship together with members of our families since then. Equally, the recalcitrant posture and refusal of successive managements to rectify this anomalies despite interventions by well-meaning stake-holders including the erstwhile Minister of Labour & Productivity, Mr. Adetokunbo Ademola, SAN.  Sir, this calls for your deserved attention and condemnation.  This is responsible for our continued consternation.

As law abiding citizens and practitioners of industrial democracy while we were in service, we peacefully made our demands for the short fall known to the management but all our entreaties and interventions including several letters and visitations made to pertinent Government’s Labour Agencies which directed that the Bank should invite us for dialogue with a view to resolving the matter, but Union Bank Management were unyielding, ignored and rebuffed all efforts towards peaceful resolution.

This sudden retirement came at a time when our children and family members needed our financial support most.  Most of us have no roof over our heads, some have uncompleted buildings while the little pittance paid were not enough to pay for our house rents and care for our families.  Many of us have been thrown-out of our rented homes and now living in the streets with our hapless innocent children.

All these efforts are testimony to our peaceful move to make the current Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mrs. Funke Osibodu to see reason.  Rather than to follow the rules and regulation stipulated in the Collective Agreement, she refused to continue the negotiation which the former Minister of Labour and Productivity brokered and directed that the Bank should enter with us through our workers’ Union umbrella body, Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions, (ASSBIFI).

Even before writing this letter, we did a peaceful picketing on 19th April, 2010 believing that the management would retrace its step and assuage the aggrieved ex-staff; but Union Bank Management reacted on the pages of news-papers to our plea that those affected ex-staff that are not in Court, should give the bank Six months to make due payment of their short changed gratuity.

We don’t want to disrupt operations

After the expiration of the six months, on 22nd September, 2010, we wrote to remind the Union Bank Management of their promise in this regard, which the Management is yet to respond to till date.

We want to state that Union Bank Plc. is a unionized Bank and one of the old generation banks which the new ones look up to, anything that happens to the Bank will have spiral effects to other banks and the economy as a whole. We are weary of taking steps that would disrupts its processes and industrial peace, as we are also aware that any bad precedent set by the Bank would be copied by other unscrupulous managements.

This is why we consider it a dangerous trend that while the Federal Government is canvassing a policy for creation of jobs and human capital development, a sub-set of the economy like the Union Bank of Nigeria Plc could be working at variance with Government’s policy.

Since we have exercised every peaceful avenue to get what is due to us without result except if your good offices bring us succor, we may have no other alternative than to assemble and embark on a UBN branch-to-branch Affirmative Mass Campaigns to sensitize the public and ensure that justice is done on our case, and our terminal benefits appropriately calculated and paid as stipulated by the labour Act and extant Collective Agreement.

To avoid this, hence the reasons for our passionate appeal to you with the hope that your intervention would impact necessary effect on the bank to follow the path of justice and equity. This has become necessary because It is now an open secret that Management and ownership of Union Bank Nigeria Plc will be changing hands soon, hence, our cry to your office to “Save Our Souls”.

More-importantly, the Management of the Bank has taken steps to unleash further hardship on us by outlawing the little personal loans which pensioners used to enjoy in salvaging their domestic needs among other harsh treatments that had never happened in the past.

Sir, we hereby plead with you to encourage Union Bank Management to pay what is due to us and let peace reign because a hungry man is an angry man.”

Disengaged staff fully paid, says Union Bank

THE management of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, has debunked the claims of the aggrieved ex-workers, saying, all its staff members who were disengaged between 2005 and 2008 were paid their full benefits, and those eligible for pensions have since commenced drawings of same.

Speaking through the Mike Iyela and  Eddy Ademosu, Senior Manager, Human Resources and Corporate Affairs, respectively, the bank explained “the terms of disengagement of the aforementioned staff were discussed and duly agreed with the in-house Unions at that time, while a total of 1118 staff affected within this period collected the sum of N6.6 billion, in addition to annual pensions in the region of N1 billion since then. The erstwhile Honourable Minister of Labour and Productivity held a meeting with the Chief Executives of Banks and Unions executives last January in Abuja on a couple of labour  issues including the grievance of a group of ex-Union Bank staff.

Though the Bank’s Management could not attend as the invitation for the meeting came late, they were subsequently granted audience by the Minister to discuss specific issues raised by the Union executives about the Bank, among which included the grievance by a group of ex-staff. The Minister requested the Bank’s management to meet with th
e Union executives to discuss and seek an amicable solution to the issue.

The Management of the Bank did highlight that there were two factions of the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI) and the Minister advised that a joint meeting with the two factions should be held. In compliance with the advice by the Minister, the Bank’s management invited the two factions of ASSBIFI and following the refusal of one of the factions to participate in a joint meeting with the other faction, the management held separate meetings with the two factions to discuss a wide range of issues.”

“The faction that purportedly represent this group of former staff claimed they were retired by the Bank between 2005 and 2008 and were being owed a shortfall on their terminal benefits, specifically alleged that the retirement exercise conducted during the period was akin to redundancy and as such the aggrieved former staff should have been paid redundancy benefits. The other faction, which incidentally represents the current workforce in the Bank, held a different view on this issue.