A coalition of civil society groups in the country has vowed to use all legal means necessary to fight Diamond Bank over its recent sacking of 400 workers.

The coalition, in an email sent to our correspondent on Friday by its spokesperson and National Coordinator, Citizens Rights and Leadership Awareness Initiative, Mr. Peter Nwokolo, accused the bank of not following due process as required by extant labour laws and international best practices in the disengagement of the workers.

The group had in a statement released earlier in the week accused the bank of falsehood, describing its explanation that the workers were sacked because of their non performance as a lie.



It said investigation showed that “most of the sacked workers had indeed obtained appraisal scores in excess of the recommended score of 50 per cent and above, going by the bank’s last performance index concluded in February 2016.”

Nwokolo, in his response to an email from Saturday PUNCH, said the bank was yet to respond to a letter sent to it by the group on July 11, which was addressed to its Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer.

He, however, vowed that should the group not hear from the bank on time, it “will take every measure within the ambit of the law to ensure that the rule of law prevails and that the sacked workers get their deserved pay off as required by relevant labour laws.”

“It is our considered view that Diamond Bank as a responsible corporate entity understands that they cannot afford to treat such a serious issue that concerns the welfare and well being of Nigerians under its employment with levity and so we expect that our demands should receive prompt and appropriate response,” he added in his email.

In its earlier statement, the group had called on Diamond Bank to immediately “engage the sacked workers in negotiations with a view to reaching an agreement on the terms of settlement, so that the affected staff can move on with their careers, which has been damaged by the negative reports of their sacking, which the bank had deliberately and erroneously presented as a result of lack of productivity.”

The statement had further asked the bank to retract its statements which it said “were aimed at circumventing the rules in order to bypass deserved and unavoidable payoff,” adding that some of the workers who had put in more than a decade in the service of the bank lamented the negative effect the bank’s statements have had on their careers.

It also called on the bank to address “the blatant and unilateral deductions of already agreed long term loan tenures from the bank account of the affected workers.”

However, when our correspondent contacted the bank management, it denied sacking 400 workers.

A response in an email from the bank’s Team Lead, Media Relations, Corporate Communications, Mr. Ikechuckwu Omeife, said “only 200 staff whose performance scorecards were adjudged to be lower than the minimum required to drive its strategic growth plan for the business year were relieved” of their jobs.

The bank described the downsizing of its workforce as “rightsizing” and as a core strategic exercise in line with the bank’s growth objective and the will to optimise cost and enhance value for the shareholders at the end of the business year.”

“The yearly appraisal is a general industry standard and enables banks to prune their workforce and prudently allocate resources for optimum result,” it added.

The Federal Government had earlier directed banks in the country to halt the all ongoing retrenchment of workers in the banking and telecommunications sector and even threatened to withdraw the operating licence of any bank or company in breach of the directive.

Source : http://punchng.com/diamond-bank-groups-face-off-workers-retrenchment/

Additional information with pix(documents) attached in the link below :

http://dailypost.ng/2016/07/21/diamond-bank-reportedly-sacks-400-staff-refuses-pay-entitlements/

@1forall and crazyMan...it is a crazy world

Shocking response

Observed Diamond bank only cc CBN and Ministry of Labour in their response.

lalasticlala please front page. some banks MD are not more humane than lucifer himself. please MODs and SuperMods do the needful, condemn this draconian treatment to fellow Nigerians. why people don't get justice in this country is because of the "to your tent O isreal mentality" Diamond Bank is now a banana republic and a slave camp since Uzoma dozie became the MD. civil laws are no longer respected. where are we going in this country. the rich getting richer while the poor keep getting poorer. Uzoma pay those you cruelly disengaged their entitlement as written in the appointment letter. do not challenge the long arm of justice. do not challenge God. do not offend the wrong person, chose your victims carefully - Robert Green. you are warned. the fly wey no de hear de follow coffin enter grave!!!

what's the way forward Nigeria?

The price of being dependent on oil...

High oil prices cover up a lot of economic issues. When the price collapses....the Emperor that is the Nigerian economy has no new clothes

Nigeria economy is not recovering anytime soon

Call me a pessimist

But I'm just a realist

Dere wz A country.MoDs Pls hlp me Explain this rule 16,

I'm sorry but I neva liked d bank 4rm d get go.

This is an Insult to Covenant university

Ahha

Dere WS a country

hi dear

AndreRose:
okay

Misplaced vent of anger
Who tells a private entity how to best run his business or when to hire or sack
The onus is on the federal government to provide conducive environment for businesses to thrive
The economy is weeping and going south with the speed of light

hopefulLandlord:
Nigeria economy is not recovering anytime soon
Call me a pessimist
But I'm just a realist

I am not surprised .....

The dullard told us economy will pick up by 2017. I ask, are they modalities on ground to guarantee that? No. Just talks and more talks. The pointers on ground show that economy will instead get worse by 2017 if these people who are just in leadership for their friends and selfish aim fail to sit up. No matter, how loud we shout, more people will still be sacked. The economy has made it so. Those piloting it lack basic knowledge required to be a successful leader.

do not challenge the long arm of justice. do not challenge God. do not offend the wrong person, chose your victims carefully - Robert Green. you are warned. the fly wey no de hear de follow coffin enter grave!!! I love these quotes

Someone told me that banks make most of their money from shady deals. I'm beginning to succumb to that submission. It seems that this TSA thing really hit them hard. Let them invest in people for crying out loud. Give loans to young entrepreneurs and rake in your interest. Bankers are lazy upstairs (albeit not all).

All their marketers are interested in is deposit, deposit and deposit. Gosh...

Bank work and heart attack

Diamond Bank MD should see the HANDWRITING on the wall; Sheat his sword and clear off all this mess to avoid looming customer attrition as this -ve publicity stunts won't help the growth of the Bank in this dwindling economy of "change".

I'm sure if something happens to the bank everybody will then know that it is not diamond bank we are suppose to blame

Move ur money to another bank before uzoma finish the bank.bank where Md gives himself loan running to billion of naira without collateral. Disbelief me at your peril.Cbn won't act fast now until now....

why sack and put a dent on their future career?

employees are often adviced not to burn the bridge while leaving there job, now it's the employer that is doing so?

Until something is done about contract staffing this problems will never end it is a modern slavery technique while enriching few contractor's, contract should be for highly specialized and scarce professional on short term base only alas it has been turn into in things in Nigeria

It shuld be noted Diamond bank is the only bank that refused to pay d disengaged (sacked) workers. So pls comment on the issue leave buhari govt out of this.

People are suffering oooooooo

Useless Nigerian banks, what they can't do in Zambia, Gambia, Ghana and in most of these African countries is what they are doing to their fellow Nigerian.

Bioben:
It shuld be noted Diamond bank is the only bank that refused to pay d disengaged (sacked) workers. So pls comment on the issue leave buhari govt out of this.

I tire for people oo, is Buhari the reason why diamond bank top shots give loans to their relatives and lovers and then turn around to sack innocent hard working employees who have dependents? is Buhari the reason why other banks pay their disengaged staff and diamond bank fail to do so as stated on the employment letter. let's not politicize this things, most greedy men are capitalising on the state of the economy to unleash mayhem on their fellow human beings. how can you suddenly sack someone and refuse to obey legal document issued. More bank MDs will soon be exposed. lasticlala send this thread to front page na, what are u waiting for