Bankers set to picket Heritage bank over alleged sack of colleagues

UFOMBA UZUEGBU

Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI),weekend in Lagos, served a notice of intention, to picket Heritage Bank Plc, over the alleged wrongful dismissal of over 30  members of the association, including a Principal National Officer.

Towards this end, the Association has threatened to deploy all its networks and contacts to mobilize affiliate trade unions and Nigerian workers against the management of Heritage Bank PLc over it’s alleged anti-worker activities.

The President of ASSBIFI,Comrade Olusoji Oluwole,who disclosed this in a signed statement, noted that the protest is based on the alleged wrongful retrenchment of workers without following due process by the management.

Management disengaged over 30 members of ASSBIFI, including a Principal National Officer of the

Association, in May 2023. ASSBIFI condemned the action as an outright violation of Section 20 of the Labour Act, Cap L1,PLFN 2004, the Association’s IndustryWide Collective Agreement and  the ILO Convention 158 on Termination of

Employment, which specifically provides that ” the employment of a worker, shall not be terminated, unless there is a valid reason for such termination “.

Oluwole alleged that Heritage Bank refused to settle severance benefits of the sacked workers who have been members of the Association since May 2023.

” We have engaged the management of the bank, on several occasions to demand justice for the vulnerable Nigerian workers whose employments were wrongfully terminated, but the bank management insisted that the workers were sacked based on their company policy, without negotiation with the union, as provided by the law “, he said.

The ASSBIFI boss also alleged that the bank refused to produce it’s policy and details of the claimed payments and settlement of severance benefits paid to the disengaged employees over three months of request.

Oluwole recalled that the employees had served the bank between 5 and 25 years and for no tangible reasons, asked the workers to go empty-handed.

” This is exploitation and injustice of the worst order.It is wrong, unjust and in insensitive and we strongly object to this slavery. We are now forced to assume that the management of Heritage Bank does not have the capacity to settle the entitlements of the employees.

“It also speaks volumes about the safety of several Nigerian workers in affiliated unions who have their salaries paid into this and others whose savings are domiciled in the bank”, Oluwole added.
Efforts to speak with the management proved unsuccessful at press time.