Banks Slash Workers' October Salaries

Banks slash workers' October salaries
By Enitar Ugwu

IN the banks, the belt-tightening continues. For a yet-to-be-explained reason and in an action that took many workers unawares, some banks in the country slashed the October salaries of their employees by half.



 http://odili.net/news/source/2009/nov/2/17.html

The Guardian learnt at the weekend that most of the banks which cut the pay did not inform their workers before the action as the employees only discovered that at the point of collecting their October salaries.

Some of the banks, it was learnt, apart from slashing salaries, have sacked those workers considered to be in excess of the required workforce.

Feelers from the industry show that the decision to downsize the workforce in the banks has to do with the urgent need to recapitalise and improve the liquidity positions of many of the financial institutions.

To achieve this requirement, almost all the banks have done away with most of the perks such as soft loans, which were common before the recent banking reforms.

Another one of the most prominent perks likely to be stopped by almost all the banks is the "up-front payment", which enables the worker to collect a significant percentage of his/her annual salary at once, mostly at the beginning of each year.

Also, investigation by The Guardian reveals that the usual yearly profit sharing by bank workers may not be possible, as there is hardly any profit to share.

A management employee in one of the banks told The Guardian that profit-sharing at this point in time is out of the question.

He added: "As you can see, after making provision for non-performing loans, coupled with other newly introduced measures, almost all the banks are going to post losses. So, where is the profit to share?"

He added that even if a bank made profit, sharing part of it would be foolhardy as every bank needs funds now for its operations.

However, labour unions within the banking sector are beginning to brace up for the impending face-off that may likely ensue between them and the management of the financial institutions if the current job losses continue.

 Whats gonna be gonna be,

@ All


The crisis in the nation's banking industry has begun to take its toll on the employees of the banks, as many of them have lost their jobs. Investigation by LEADERSHIP showed that no fewer than four banks have laid off a good number of  their staff, while others are threatening to embark on massive  retrenchment  as part of measures  to cut down operating cost. Consequently, it was gathered that an old generation bank that received a clean bill of health from the apex bank with head office in Marina, Lagos, recently sacked 400 workers for their inability to meet set target, while a new generation bank with its head office in Adeola Hopewell in Victoria Island, Lagos, has sacked 700 staffers, mostly marketers, due to liquidity crisis. It was also gathered that another new generation bank, after reducing staff salary by 30 per cent, has compiled names of about 900 workers to be sacked before the end of November, while another new generation bank that was among the five banks that failed the Central Bank of Nigeria  and Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation’s  stress test, last week reduced its staff strength by 30 per cent. It was also gathered that others are still compiling lists of staff to be thrown into the labour market. Other reasons given by the banks for the sack, according to investigations, ranged from low productivity, inability to meet set targets, to the need to save cost in the face of the prevailing circumstances in the sector. However, a banker who pleaded anonymity said that some banks (names withheld) used outrageous targets as  benchmark to determine who should be sacked  and failure to meet the target would lead to automatic sack. The source said that all staff that were close to the former management fired by the CBN were either sacked or posted to their remote branches. Sources close to the banks told Leadership that most of the banks are doing everything possible to slash their overhead cost, to enable them recover from their exposures to both the capital market and the oil and gas sector. They also explained that following the  tight monitory policy of the CBN, in terms of adopting risk management structure, most banks have taken steps to reduce cost by quietly downsizing staff,  especially those who are unproductive and unable to meet their target. Although  inside sources in the four banks  denied news of the sack, LEADERSHIP gathered that their managements are still prepared to sack any staff that is found incompetent. It was also gathered that anxiety is mounting in some banks, whose  new managements plan massive sack over what the workers regard as frivolous excuses such as staff indebtedness to the bank and failure to meet targets.


http://www.leadershipnigeria.com/index.php/news/cover-stories/8142-sack-fever-grips-banking-industry

THE MEDIA ALL CAN'T BE TELLING LIES