Retrenchment: NUBIFIE tells bank executives to create options

The National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees (NUBIFIE) on Saturday advised the management of banks to generate new ideas that would boost their financial muscle to stem the retrenchment of workers.

Mr Muhammed Sheikh, General Secretary of NUBIFIE, in Lagos said that there was an urgent need for the banks to stop the massive sack of workers.

According to Sheikh, sacking of workers in times of crisis will not solve the problem but would rather aggravate it because of failure to follow the industry’s collective agreement.

“We acknowledge the challenges in the economy and the policies to curb them. There is drop in the price of crude oil and there is the issue of scarcity of foreign exchange.

“All these have made business operations more difficult but it is not the fault of the workers. That explains why the banks must come up with other options, rather than mass layoffs,” he said.

Sheikh said that there were five banks that had been earmarked by the union which had refused to adhere to the plea by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, not to sack workers.

He said that the union would soon engage the banks that had refused to respect the country’s extant labour laws.

“We have a union on ground to engage some of the banks that have refused to obey the laws. We will, however, consult with the United Labour Congress (ULC), which is our parent body.

“The ULC has given us the assurance that they will intervene after necessary consultations with the affected banks fail. We will then organise and picket them.

“While we agree that the employer can hire and fire, there are laws guiding this process. They must not be allowed to be seen to play above the law.

“You do not wake up and sack massively without subjecting to the industry’s collective bargaining agreement,’’ Sheikh said.

The union scribe said that labour was monitoring the operations of the banks, including two old and three new generation banks involved in mass retrenchments.

Mrs Oyinkan Olasanoye, President of the Association of Senior Staff of Banks and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI), also acknowledged that employers were facing hard times.

However, Olasanoye encouraged the bank managers to seek more tolerable ways of managing the situation, rather than embarking on mass retrenchments.

She warned that increasing the rate of unemployment had the potential to further hurt the economy and urged the management of banks to reinvent a strategic partnership with their workers to enhance productivity.