By Victor Ahiuma-Young
LAGOS—THE National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees, NUBIFIE, and its Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions, ASSBIFI, counterpart,yesterday, threatened to cripple the operations of Intercontinental, Oceanic and Unity banks over alleged  mass sack of workers few days before Christmas.

Leaders of NUBIFIE and ASSBIFI, at a briefing in Lagos asked customers of the affected banks to make all necessary withdrawals between today and Tuesday to avoid untold hardship as all activities of the banks would be shut until all their grievances were met.

Giving details of their grievances, President of ASSBIFI, Comrade Sunday Olusoji Salako, alleged that Intercontinental Bank Plc sacked 200 employees; Oceanic International Bank Plc, 100; and Unity Bank Plc, 36 staff.

He called on banks that had dispatched unlawful 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
Salako said 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 yesterday without the banks addressing Labour demands.

The ASSBIFI president who lamented that the retrenchment of over 300 employees by Unity Bank was still pending since 2009, before this latest sack by the same bank, adding:  “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 rationalisation 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 and additional list of workers to be disengaged is being compiled.

Meanwhile, this bank has not yet negotiated or paid what is required by law and our Industry-wide Collective Agreement to the staff that were disengaged in December, 2009.

Sack of 200 workers

“Intercontinental and Oceanic Bank International Plc were authoritatively reported to have surreptitiously,  disengaged about 200 workers. It is poignant to note that these banks and others have institutionalised 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 rationalisation has not helped their cause, then they should look elsewhere and formulate formidable strategies to achieve organisational 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 rationalisation 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.”