Bank workers protest contract termination, demand entitlements
Some workers with Access Bank Plc have protested against the alleged termination of their contracts and non-payment of their entitlements.
The workers, who protested at the bank’s head office in Victoria Island on Wednesday, carried placards depicting their agitation.
Some of the placards read, “Stop Access Bank brutality. More than 2,000 sacked”, “Access, pay us our entitlements”, “What does the future hold for support staff?”, “Stop enslaving Nigerians in their country”.
The workers accused the bank of terminating the contracts of over 2000 workers without paying their entitlements.
Some of the workers said trouble started on April 31, 2020 when the bank laid some staff off due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
It was gathered that the bank recalled the workers after the intervention of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Federal Government.
Though the workers were recalled, they were asked to stay away from the office, as the bank continued to pay their salaries.
However, events took another turn on November 30, 2020, when some of them were served with letters terminating their appointments from their various outsourcing firms.
One of the protesters, Akintayo Akinyemi, who said the bank was in dialogue with the National Union of Banks Insurance and Financial Institution Employees, noted that the bank shifted the discussion till December 11 on purpose.
“We want them to pay our entitlements, they should pay us off so that we can do something with our lives. I am in my mid-thirties and i have been applying for jobs since then but they have been turning me down because of my age. I cannot get a valid job anymore. I have put about 10 years into the system and i was laid off just like that”.
Another worker, Solomon Oropo, alleged that the bank’s outsourcing firms paid the workers 11,500 for terminating their appointments.
“Our union have been having meetings with the bank and the bank denied sacking us. There are staff that have been working for 20 years and below and many of us are above 40 with families and they are paying us 11,500 in lieu of notification and that’s all. We see it as dubious and uncalled for and we say no to it. They cannot use our youthful age and ask us to go home with 11,500.