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The Association of
Senior Staff of Bank, Insurance and Financial Institution (ASSBIFI) has
called off the picketing scheduled for today in Intercontinental,
Oceanic, and Unity Banks untill negotiations are finalised.

Sunday Salako, the president, in a telephone interview, said discussions were still on, so picketing cannot hold for now.

“Like I said,
negotiations have already begun. We are done with Intercontinental
Bank; the union is talking with Oceanic Bank at the moment and we would
be discussing with Unity Bank tomorrow. You know these are three
separate institutions and we have to talk with them individually,” he
said.

Mr. Salako, who
said the discussions were going on smoothly, said that the crux of the
matter was not particularly the layoff but the process with which it
was coordinated by the banks.

Fighting for due process

The labour unions
have had issues with banks ever since the series of layoff that have
been rocking the industry since the bank crisis that peaked in 2009.

Banks, both the
rescued and supposedly ‘safe’ ones, have been retrenching in their
hundreds, forcing the labour leaders, at the peak of sackings last
year, to write a letter to the Central Bank governor and the Ministry
of Labour, alerting them of the happenings in the industry.

“We are not going
to fold our arms and watch institutions whose management do not have
regards to laws binding staff and management, or the constitutions of
Federal Republic of Nigeria to have their way,” the Trade Union
Congress said at the peak of layoffs last year.

Banks have been
accused of not following Article 5(b) Part 11 (Section 1) of the
Collective Agreement relating to redundancy and Section 20 of the
Labour Act before initially carrying out their purported sack exercise.

Hassan Adeleke, the
president of National Union of Banks, Insurance and Other Financial
Institutions’ Employees (NUBIFE) in a previous telephone interview
said, “The due process we are talking about is that even if at all you
want to send anybody away, you must call the unions to negotiate an
exit package for our members.”

Mr. Adeleke said
all persons being discharged or relieved of duties on the basis of even
redundancy are entitled to some welfare packages, following due process
and that where trade unions are recognised by employers and are able to
operate openly, they may negotiate with employers over wages and
working conditions.

In a bid to cut
cost and remain in business, almost all the banks in the industry have
laid off since the crisis was highlighted in the industry last year.
First Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Diamond Bank, Access Bank, Wema Bank, Spring
Bank, Intercontinental Bank, Bank PHB, among others, have all laid off
a sizeable number of their manpower.