My cousin works in Skye bank and she was home for Xmas. She has been highly depressed as she is about to lose her job. She has to resign though unwillingly from this her current job based on an addendum to an existing policy in the bank which states and I quote:

“The bank shall not employ relatives. A relative is defined here as father, mother, sister, brother, husband, wife, son, daughter, grandfather, grandmother, grandson, granddaughter, nephew, niece.”

According to her, a recent email reminder states that this policy would come into enforcement from January 2011. She actually has a biological brother who is married and works in a different region of the same bank. She has worked for less than two years while he has for over five years. She has neither received a query or a warning and she is quite diligent with her work. She has widely consulted amongst her colleagues and there seems to be no other solution in sight.

Please, while I hereby solicit assistance/help of any kind including advisory and guidance for her.
I would also like to ask:
What does the bank plan to achieve with this unfriendly policy in a country of 150million people?
Has she any legal window to escape and ensure the enforcement of this policy does not affect her (as she repeatedly said that she cannot remember being asked to sign any document that enquired about having a relative at the point of being recruited/inducted)?

It's not new in the corporate world. Many organizations have always had this, and some others are just beginning to introduce it.
Though in my opinion, so long as the reporting line is not the same, it should not be a problem, especially as both siblings got into the company on their own merit. Some would say the policy promotes diversification, and does not allow for nepotism, I don't agree.

It's tough but she has to find something else to do, I guess.

Why should she be d one 2 resign and not her brother?

Has she any legal window to escape and ensure the enforcement of this policy does not affect her (as she repeatedly said that she cannot remember being asked to sign any document that enquired about having a relative at the point of being recruited/inducted)?

she probably overlooked it,

But this doesn't really make sense especially for a very large company with branches everywhere, how are we suppose to keep tabs with where cousins, nephews, aunties and uncles work up and down the country?

@poster
- did she get to read her contract before she signed it?!
- didnt she know at the time that her brother had been working for 3yrs already for that same bank?

@poster
- did she get to read her contract before she signed it?!
- didnt she know at the time that her brother had been working for 3yrs already for that same bank?

She read the contract properly and there was no section, sentence or clause on non-employment of relatives. This policy is an addendum (update) on the previously existing bank policy on marriage which was in place as at the time of her recruitment so her brother working in the bank did not matter to her at that time.

^^^then as soon as this new clause was put in place,she should have gone to talk to someone in her HR dept or superiors about it.
btw: maybe its simply a cheap way to lay off people in that bank.

this things are sad
but i think if she put her self in the shoes of the employers she'd see things from their viewpoint.
though now , her heart may be sorrowing and its all about how will i cope.
she wont starve to death - let her rise up and face life. at least ,one member of the family is catered for.
[the policy makes sense- if you may ask me. otherwise sb would be trying to build a dynasty and corner the business for himself.they'll be no more professionalism,
everybody from gateman to manager maybe all members of one extended family.
trust naija . free chop.
]

Stup!d policy in my opinion. I used to work with a guy that got married to the branch secretary, HR had to move her to another branch. Once thay are not in the same dept or report to each other in any way that could cause conflict of interest or collusion,the bank can waive the policy.

There are people here with their grand parents in the same job and everything is fine but we just have to make things difficult for ourselves in Nigeria unnecessarily.

Well, at the end of the day, the bank has a right to do so. Since the labour laws do not address these situations, a lot of things are left to discretion of the organization. SO I would not demonize the bank or their policy, it's just the way things are in Nigeria.