Union pickets Heritage Bank over sack of 1000 workers without exit claims

The National Union of Banks, Insurance and Fi­nancial Institutions Em­ployees (NUBIFIE) has staged a protest at the head office of the Heritage Bank in Victoria Island over al­leged wrongful disengage­ment and refusal to settle severance benefits of about 1000 exited workers.
The leaders and mem­bers of the union, while chanting solidarity songs, expressed their dissatis­faction at the sacking of about 1,000 workers of the bank, reports Sunday Independent.
With placards bearing words like, ‘CBN, call Heri­tage Bank to order’, ‘N90,000 benefits for 15 years’ service is dehumanizing’, ‘Banking is not slavery, stop dehu­manising workers’, ‘Stop your anti-union policy’, the protesters demanded that the affected workers should be well compensated.
Addressing the gather­ing, the President of NU­BIFIE, Comrade Anthony Abakpa said that despite the union’s efforts to seek justice for the workers through negotiation and dialogue, the bank termi­nated their employment without following due pro­cess and failed to provide documentation of sever­ance benefits paid.
Abakpa emphasised that these employees had ded­icated years of service to the bank, ranging from 14 to 18 years, and criticized the bank for leaving them without any compensation, calling it “exploitation and injustice of the worst or­der”.
“The bank paid stipend of N90, 000 for a worker that has served them for more than l5 years.
“This is a criminal act and we cannot take it any longer. We will continue with these activities until our demand is met.”
The General Secretary of the union, Comrade Sheikh Mohammed said the picket­ing is based on the wrongful retrenchment of workers without following due pro­cess by the management.
He said the bank refused to settle severance benefits of the sacked workers who are members of the associa­tion after disengaging them.
“We shall not hesitate to deploy all its networks and contacts to mobilise affiliate trade unions and Nigerian workers towards protecting the rights and privileges of our members in this institu­tion,” he said.
Responding, the Head of human Resources of the bank, Mother Dan Egwu, said all the severance ben­efits and pension of the affected workers have been paid through the Service Providers, who according to her their contract with the bank has also been ter­minated.
Moving forward she said the bank is ready to engage with the union so as to sort out the problem.