Mass sack: NLC suspends plan to picket banks

From Magnus Eze, Abuja

REPRIEVE yesterday came the way of Nigerian banks as the Nigeria Labour Con­gress (NLC), said it would no longer picket those that planned to retrench work­ers.

Several banks recently de­clared redundancy citing the downturn in the economy as reason, that prompted the sacking of over 3,500 work­ers. The NLC had threat­ened to picket six banks that were on the verge of laying off workers.

But arising from a meet­ing with the Nigeria Employ­ers’ Consultative Association (NECA) in Abuja, the NLC said both parties would participate in a tripartite summit being organised by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment where contending issues in the sector would be ad­dressed.

NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, who addressed newsmen in company with Director General of NECA, Mr. Olusegun Oshinowo, and representatives of bank chief executives said any retrenchment must be in consonance with the employer/employee con­tract as enshrined in the labour laws of Nigeria.

Wabba also disclosed that they agreed to ensure the unionisation of all the banks to protect the rights of workers in the banking sector.

“Why we are here is be­cause workers should not be treated as slaves in any of our sectors, either pub­lic or private. There are laws guiding employment; there are laws guiding re­dundancy, which include the fact that the union has to be informed, the scope and the procedure also to be followed to dispense with such issues. And what we are insisting is that it cannot be mere pronouncements; those processes provided in Section 40 of the Trade Union Act must be fol­lowed so that it would be a win-win situation and we can resolve the issues,” Wab­ba said.

The NECA DG thanked labour for accepting to sub­ject the issue of retrench­ment in banks to social dialogue, pointing out that there were bound to be is­sues in employer/employ­ees’ relationship.

Oshinowo urged any banks that were yet to fully unionise their workers to do so, while appealing to the government to provide the enabling environment for businesses to thrive so that the worker would be protected on a sustainable basis.