Workers in the banks that were recently acquired by safer banks in the country are now faced with palpable apprehension and fear as thousands of them are set to lose their jobs in the coming days.

Investigations by Saturday Tribune showed that the acquiring entities have already penciled in names of workers for sack any moment from now. With Access Bank setting the pace, other banks are said to be waiting to get to a reasonable stage in their merger process before releasing the list. This development has led to intense lobby in all the affected banks.

In Oceanic Bank, some workers are already submitting their disengagement letters for fear of being affected in the sweeping exercise.

Only recently, Access Bank, the new owner of Intercontinental Bank, offloaded over 1,000 workers of the bank, hinging its action on a desire to ensure the long-term sustainability and growth of the merged entity, adding that it was imperative that the bank’s cost structures are brought in line with Nigerian and global best practice.

According to a statement from the bank, the rationalisation process was carried out after working closely with Accenture to determine optimal level of resources to support a bank of its size that serves customers efficiently and delivers acceptable returns to investors, stressing that it was also part of the process of benchmarking against local and foreign financial institutions.

“Consequently, some rationalisation of resources and staff was necessary. We have taken care to ensure all aspects of the rationalisation process are fair, objective, transparent and generous. The terms for employees’ restructuring were reached in consultation with relevant labour bodies.

All departing staff will receive prompt payment of their entitlements along with other benefits. Access Bank is also funding an outplacement service to assist staff who will be seeking employment either within the financial services sector or other sectors of the economy,” the statement read in part.

However, this action snowballed into chain of reactions from the affected workers. Apart from open protest, some of them have also petitioned Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN) the industry’s major regulator for redress.

They alleged that the exercise was done in bad faith, adding that the manner of their sack was designed to deny them their severance pay. They, therefore, asked the CBN to call the affected banks to order by directing the management to recall them or, in the alternative, properly disengage them.

Meanwhile, Saturday Tribune gathered that the Access Bank staff, mainly that of Intercontinental Bank, are resigning en-mass over what they termed un-realistic terms of employment” by the new owners.

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