Bimbola Oyesola

Workers in the financial sector of the economy have tasked the incoming National Assembly to look into the problem of casualisation and other anti-labour practices in the banking sector.

The workers, under the umbrella of the National Union of Banks Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees (NUBIFIE), lamented that most new generation banks in the country have no regard to the country’s labour laws, which they flouted at will.

President of NUBIFIE, Comrade Abakpa Anthony, said the banks rather than employ permanent staff who are more experienced and better qualified, prefer to employ workers with lower qualifications as casuals.

He lamented that as casuals, the workers are often denied many of their rights, while also denying the union who would have fought for them, access to unionise them.

He said, “Casualisation is satanic. It is a way of outsourcing people’s destiny, when they are still alive. A casual is just like making one a refugee in one’s country. Mortgaging people’s future.

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“We have continued to engage the CEOs who do not know the implication on the Nigerian workers.”

The NUBIFIE president said the union has also protested at the National Assembly twice, but unfortunately we’re disappointed the way the issue was handled.

He added, “We would have loved a situation where the union and the banks we reported to the National Assembly were given same hearing on the same day. But that was not the situation, the day the CEOs were invited, we were not there and to us it was like shifting the goal post. If they really want to treat it, should have called us together.

“What the National Assembly did was to send the banks, questions, based on our report, which they would have not have answered truthfully. But unfortunately we were not there to tell them that their information were falsified and that is why we want the new NASS members to revisit it.”

Abakpa maintained that it is workers inalienable rights to belong to unions irrespective of their status and should not be denied by the employers.

He however noted that the union has been able to make some progress at getting some rights for the casuals in the sector.