EVEN as the management of Ecobank Nigeria struggles to deny claims that it disengaged a large number of its staff, maintaining that the people affected were contract staff, some of the affected staff are doing everything possible to tell their side of the story.
Some of the affected workers have accused the bank of not complying with the terms of disengagement and also slashing their severance package. Ecobank had earlier denied this in a statement, saying only contract staff were dismissed.
According to its management, Ecobank said it was not under any obligation to renew its contract with the service and that it was not under any obligation to renew their contracts which was due to expire July 31, adding that it only decided not to renew the contract of its third party recruitment agencies.
Buhari administration’s carelessness, negligence cost Nigeria’s fortune ― Soyinka
The lender said it was not under any obligation to renew its contract with the service providers.
“The bank 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 these agencies who are their employers,” it said.
It further explained that palliative measures were put in place by the bank to cushion the effect on the disengaged personnel.
“These include payment of contract cessation packages of over half a billion naira already paid through their employers, as well as an 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,” it further clarified.
The bank said it had plans to absorb 300 graduates into its system as permanent staff.
These people, it said, are currently undergoing training at its academy which was recently accredited by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria.
The workers all said Charles Kie, former managing director of the bank, had fixed N250,000 as severance package for every employment year upon the termination of an employee’s contract. However, the recently sacked workers said they got 30 per cent or less of what they had been promised.
“The severance package paid to those sacked in January was fair, even though, some of the people sacked in January were not paid. They had to go to NASSIBIFI to lodge complaint and protest. Some went to court. Eventually, they brought those ones back and paid them May.
“That was when the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and allied Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI) president, Ecobank chapter, entered an agreement with management after having a discussion with the MD, on what will be paid.
The Cable quoted an affected official, Akinleye Olusegun, who worked with the bank for 13 years as having said that they were enslaved.
“We were shocked recently when some people were sacked and some were left in the system though they are willing to go by July 31 because the slavery is getting out of hand,” Olusegun said.
“A colleague of mine that was sacked in November 2017 spent more than 10 years in the system and based on all performance, he was paid N800,000. So, we are expecting that people whose service will expire by the end of the month ought to have been paid more than that and the information we got was that the former MD signed N250,000 per year for each person,” he said.
“I worked for Ecobank for the past 13 years and I got N672,000 as severance package. If somebody who worked for 10 years can get up to N800,000, definitely I should have got over N2 million.”
Another staff identified as Patience who worked at a branch of the bank in Ikorodu said she had expected to be paid a minimum of N200,000 for each year she spent. She spoke of her plans to open a shop with the sum she calculated to be over N2 million but got only N577,000.
Patience said she was last promoted as an Oceanic Bank official and that after Ecobank took over in 2011, her salary was slashed.
“At the end of this July, some people were thinking the money they will pay us, we will use it to go into business. Most of us are almost 50 years old, we have spent 16 years. We joined when we were much younger but there was no promotion,” the Cable quoted Patience as having said.
“So we were thinking that at the end of July, we would collect the money and do something else with our lives. Some people wanted to stay for another two years before they were asked to leave. On Friday, we called our contractors to ask what was happening and they said Ecobank said they didn’t want us anymore. They asked us to sign a clearance letter and our July salary would be paid. But some people were getting N25,000 per year as severance package and that was shocking. We woke up on Saturday morning to see the alert.
“I was working as a front teller. October will make it 13 years of working with Ecobank. When I calculated what I was thinking of getting with what I was paid, I got depressed. We have been hearing a story all along that that man was not going to pay N250,000 that he may slash it down to 200. I calculated with that and I said two million plus is OK. I will get a shop and put something there if I don’t get a job.
“When the new MD came, he said we were going paperless but he has not made approval for any paperless thing. Some of the money customers keep in that bank is because of our loyalty to them, it is not because of the bank. A customer called and said I am removing my N15 million. I asked why and he said because ‘you are no longer there. It is because you’re there that is why my money is there’. And we kept that for you, all you could do is say go home and you employed other people. What is wrong? Are we too old? Then pay me off.
“I have spent all my youthful age with you. I am not saying you should not sack me, of course I am not going to die in Ecobank but please pay me,” she narrated.
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