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Workers of the
Union Bank of Nigeria have shelved their plans to go on strike until
discussions over their disagreement with the management is resolved on
September 30.

The workers accused
the bank’s management of mismanagement, ethnic prejudice, and massive
layoff of workers without adherence to due process.

The agreement,
signed between the warring parties, include an accord to halt
retrenchment, and the cut off of workers’salaries, and tax deductions
reverted to previous pre-July status, among other contentious issues.

Denja Yakub, the
secretary of the Nigerian Labour Congress told NEXT that a one-month
discussion framework has been agreed upon by workers and the bank
management.

Reaching a consensus

“We agreed on the
contentious issues that they would resolve all those issues that were
raised before the 30th of September. And then they say they are not
retrenching and do not have the plans to retrench. They also said that
those who were affected by the sack the bank embarked on would be
reconsidered,” he said.

Last week, the
Nigerian Labour Congress published a letter it wrote to the governor of
the Central Bank of Nigeria stating that dangers abound if Funke
Osibodu, the bank’s GMD/CEO, is not checked. It added “No bank in the
country has the record of unfair labour relations and attitude as being
exhibited by the Madam Osibodu-led management team.”

Bank denies allegations

In a rejoinder
published in a national daily yesterday, the bank denied the
allegations levelled against it by the union stating, “We view with
concern the inaccuracies and misinformation contained in the
advertorial letter written by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) to the
Central Bank of Nigeria.”

The statement by
Francis Barde, head of corporate affairs, stated that it has noted the
list of demands from the NLC and dialogue had since commenced. “The
bank states that it values the harmonious relationship with the
in-house staff unions and will continue to work and dialogue with them
and the NLC.”

The bank said that
it is on record that most of the staff that were terminated or
dismissed were involved in various acts of gross misconduct, which
resulted in losses by the bank.

Mr. Barde in an
interview said, “The agreement is that the management will revert to
what the members of staff were enjoying before, pending when they are
able to sit down together with the management to decide where we are
now. So, whatever that it was before, they have been reverted, since
the staff are not comfortable with what the management have done, so if
there would be any change now, they would sit down with the management
and decide, because that is the crux of the argument.”

The previous
management of Union Bank, along with seven others were sacked by Sanusi
Lamido Sanusi, the Central Bank governor, on grounds of mismanagement
of funds, lax credit risk management practices, among others.