Oceanic Bank sacks another 1,250 staff
By OMODELE ADIGUN
Wednesday, January 06, 2010


= Photo: Sun Publishing
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In keeping with the words of its Managing Director , Mr John Aboh, that mass sack would be an ongoing exercise in Oceanic Bank, another batch of 1,250 staff were disengaged from the bank on Monday and Tuesday.
According to our sources, the figure is made up of 900 core staff, comprising bulk tellers, drivers and those in the e-business unit as well as other departments, while the remaining 350 were contract staff employed under the subsidiaries of the bank namely OSIL and VLA.

It was gathered that the management was contemplating reducing its workforce of over 7,000 staff by half before the second quarter of the year. A decision that entails contracting its over 420 branch network by 30 per cent.

Also some of the departments are to be rationalized as plans are afoot to merge the Corporate Affairs and Brand Communication departments into Corporate Communication Department.

Daily Sun sources revealed that more than half of the sacked workers had received their letters, especially those in headquarters and those in branches not too far from Lagos, as the letters were conveyed through courier services.
The bank had, three weeks ago, booted out 1,500 workers in keeping with a purported directive from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that all the banks, especially the eight rescued ones, should prune their workforce as part of cost saving measures aimed at shoring up their liquidity. However, this had already been denied by the apex bank.
One of the affected staff told Daily Sun that before a staffer received the sack letter, the first indication that such worker had been ‘separated’, as used in the sacked letters, was that he would have no access into the bank’s intra mail services as he or she would have been disconnected from the electronic intra mail services, thus making it difficult to log in.

It was gathered on Tuesday that the 1,500 worers earlier disengaged were yet to get their separation benefits as promised in the disengagement letter. Daily Sun gathered that some of the separated workers had been making enquiries on why their entitlements were yet to be paid into their accounts as assured by the management but to no avail.

Feelers from the bank, however, indicated that the delay in the payment of the severance pay might not be unconnected with the current rationalization exercise as well as the decision to slash the take home pay of the remaining workers by 30 per cent. The salary reduction is expected to take effect this January.
When contacted, an official of the bank, who pleaded anonymity, denied that there was an ongoing mass sack in the bank.

Oceanic bank is one of the five banks whose chief executives were sacked last year by the apex bank over allegations of erosion of shareholders’ fund, lack corporate governance, undue exposure to the stock market with huge portfolio of non-performing loans and general abuse of office.

http://sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/jan/06/national-06-01-2010-03.htm

sickening!

The unemployment market has just received new members.