President Muhammad Buhari on Thursday, August 11, has threatened to deal with commercial banks in the country, violating labour laws, in the ongoing retrenchment process of workers in the banking sector.
Buhari, who made this know through the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, said, the Federal Government would not tolerate flagrant disobedience of labour laws by any financial institutions operating in the country.
Post-Nigeria, gathered that the development is coming at a time commercial banks have continued to lay off their staff, despite the government’s directive to put such retrenchment on hold.
Ngige, not comfortable with the development and numerous complaints and petitions, said through the Deputy Director, Press, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Samuel Olowookere, “You must obey all laws of the land, including labour laws, such as the Trade Union Act, T14 Law of the Federation concerning redundancy, and the Trade Dispute Act, which deals with the management of trade disputes, including employee-employer relationship.
“The ILO takes very seriously the issue of workers’ maltreatment in various guises, be it in the industries, construction sites, or public service. Workers should be treated with dignity and decency”.
The Minister while reminding the representatives of the banks, that the country was a signatory to the International Labour Organisations Conventions, which was against unfair labour practices, urged them to shun all malpractices, or face severe sanctions.
Top officials of Ecobank, Fidelity Bank and FCMB, among several others, who confirmed the development in the banking sector, said there was a directive from their management asking them to comply within one week.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, in another development, has directed all bank officials to immediately declare their assets.
According to Punch, a top official of one of the commercial banks said, “All our staff members, from the most junior to the most senior, were asked to declare their assets, through a court affidavit. It was handled by the company’s lawyer.
”We were asked to declare all our assets, including developed and undeveloped parcels of land, properties, houses in Nigeria and outside Nigeria, etc.“We were asked to also declare everything, including power generators at home. We complied within one week.”
The directive according to the top bank Executives, may be connected to the Federal Government’s plans to extend its anti-corruption crusade to the private sector.
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