Protest as Ecobank sacks 900 in a week, offers them ‘banking agent’

800 we learnt were sacked last Friday while another 100 were thrown out of job on Tuesday.

Though the bank is arguing on technical terms  that the sacked workers were not its direct employees.

But the National Union of Banks Insurance and Financial Institutions (NUBIFIE), said the workers were sacked without following due process.

 Some of the workers sacked had been in the Ecobank employment for over ten years and were paid parting peanuts of between N50,000 to N100,000,YOU NEWS  was told.

Breaches against the bank are… flagrant disregard for labour laws in the country,, non-payment of pension up to date, denial of such employees of health facilities, offered through  Oceanic Health and payment of N5,000.00 per diem for drivers on official assignment out of their station.

The union is saying “The argument of the bank that they are contract staff is not tenable, because in Nigeria, every worker irrespective of his status is protected by law and belongs to a union.

“We are not saying they cannot sack, but what we want is that the workers must be adequately compensated and this right we are going to enforce on behalf of our members.

Meanwhile, Ecobank Nigeria in its official reaction said it did not disengage its staff, but rather decided not to renew the contract of its third party recruitment agencies which expired recently and as such returned this category of personnel back to the agencies that engaged them.

The bank’s statement read in part: “As a demonstration of the bank’s concern and compassion for the affected personnel of our contractors, palliative measures were put in place by the bank to cushion the effect on them: These include payment of contract cessation packages of over half a billion Naira already paid through their employers as well as opportunity given to those with requisite qualification to apply to the bank for permanent employment.

“In addition, the bank has offered them the opportunity to become Xpress point agents of Ecobank as a way of further providing them entrepreneurial and financial empowerment. May we state that Ecobank is not obligated to renew its contract with the service providers involved.”