Nigerian Labour Threatens Showdown With Six Banks Over Mass Sack Of Workers

The organized labour has written to the management of Diamond Bank, First City Monument Bank Plc, Skye Bank and three others, requesting them to recall sacked workers and accept unionisation or face the wrath of workers and civil society allies.

Vanguard reports that the organized labour under the auspices of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and its Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, counterpart have already reached out to their civil society allies to strategize on planned assault on the banks and their branches nationwide.

In a notice to the Managing Directors of the six banks, NLC, through its Deputy General Secretary, Mr. Chris Uyot, labour threatened that after the June 30th deadline, any of the banks that failed to meet both demands would face unprecedented industrial unrest, including ensuring that the bank and all its outfits were closed for business nationwide.

The letter read: “I have been directed to inform you that, it has been brought to our notice by our affiliate union, the National Union of Banks, insurance, and Financial institutions Employees, NUBIFIE, that your bank is one of those that had arbitrarily sacked a large number of workers in recent times, contrary to laid down procedures and the country’s extant labour laws.

“Also, of concern has been that these blatant retrenchments were carried out without recourse to several correspondences, including letters and circulars, sent to you by the union to retrace your steps, in line with best practices in labour relations and laws of the land.”